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THE SOCIAL TEACHING
OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
THE HALLEY STEWART LECTURES
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Halley Stewart Publications I
THE SOCIAL TEACHING
OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
by
ERNST TROELTSCH
TRANSLATED BY
OLIVE WYON
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY
CHARLES GORE
D.D.j D.C.L., LL.D.
VOLUME ONE
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
FIRST PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH IN 1931
All nghts reserved
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
UNWIN BROTHERS LTD., WOKINQ
DEDICATED
IN DEEPEST GRATITUDE AND RESPECT
TO
THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHICAL FACULTY
AT GREIFSWALD
AND
TO THE EMINENT LAW FACULTY
AT BRESLAU
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
It is not necessary to agree with Troeltsch in all his opinions
in order to rejoice heartily at the appearance of an English trans-
lation of his greatest book. It stands beyond question without a
rival, whether in thoroughness or in comprehensiveness, as an ex-
position of Christian life and thought in their relation to con-
temporary social facts, ideas, and problems from the beginnings of
Christianity down to post-Reformation developments. And we
owe much gratitude to the skilful translator.
CHARLES GORE
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
Friedrich von Hugel, in his essay on The Specific Genius of
Christianity, remarks that “it is not easy to furnish a short yet
useful account and criticism of Troeltsch’s Soziallehren, with its
nearly thousand pages, its bewildering variety of topics, and the
range and delicacy of competence it so strikingly reveals.” It is
obvious that the translation of this “monumental work,” as Baron
Von Hugel calls it, would present peculiar difficulties. In addition
to the wide range of the author’s learning and his extensive use
of unusual and technical terms, there was the added difficulty
of an extremely involved style.
For the sake of clarity the translator has introduced cross-
headings which are not in the German text. Paragraphs have
been subdivided, and where it was possible sentences have been
broken up into their constituent parts. The present work, how-
ever, is an unabridged translation of the famous book published
in Germany in the year 1911 under the title: Die Soziallehren der
christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen. It forms the first volume in the
Collected Works of Ernst Troeltsch.
The footnotes occupy a large part of the book. Some of these
notes are dissertations or articles rather than “notes,” and they
often contain most valuable material. In order to free the text
from this mass of annotations, however, the longer notes have
been placed at the end of the chapters to which they belong.
Actual footnotes alone have been left in their original position.
A very few notes have been slightly condensed. No references
have been omitted, and the numbering of the German edition
has been retained. Note 80, which belongs to Chapter II, will
be found on page 199, at the end of the Notes belonging to
Chapter I.
The translator owes a very great debt of gratitude to several
friends who have given most generous help out of the stores of
their knowledge and experience. She would offer her cordial
thanks to Mrs. Margrieta Beer, M.A. ; Mrs. John May, B.A. ;
Frau Maria Schliiter-Hermkes, D.D. ; and Miss Evelyn Underhill.
The Rev. A. E. Garvie, M.A., D.D., D.Th., has kindly read the
full text of the translation; for this, as well as for other most
generous assistance, the translator wishes to render special
acknowledgement and gratitude.
OLIVE WYON
London
August 1931
CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 9
translator’s PREFACE II
FOREWORD 1 9
INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
OF METHOD
Point of departure : the social and ethical questions of the present
day 23
Conception of the sociological autonomous development of
Christianity 25
Conception of secular social organizations 27
Evolution of a sociological fundamental theory which transcends
both, and which in some way is determined by the religious idea 30
The attitude of the religious ethic to the main social organizations
of the State, the Family, and Economics within this fundamental
theory 3 1
Definition of the categories from which the material for these
discussions is drawn 34
CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
1, The Gospel 39
The most primitive form of Christianity independent of all direct
influences from the social movements of late antiquity and of
the Imperial period 39
Connection between Christianity and the whole religious movement
of late antiquity 43
Indirect connection with social history 46
The main ethical idea in the message of Jesus 51
The sociological character and significance of this fundamental idea 55
Attitude to the social values of the State, of Economics, of the
Family, of Society 58
Parallel religious and sociological development among the Stoics 64
2. Paul
The rise of a new religious community and its sociological effect 69
Development of a sociological fundamental theory from the point
of view of the Church ; equality and inequality ; patriarchalism 79
Attitude to the Family, the State, Society, Economics 80
Conservative and revolutionary elements within the new religious
community 82
Affinity of Christianity with certain forms of civilization. Forecast
of future developments 86
i 4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
PAGE
3. Early Catholicism 89
The organization of the Church and its constitution 89
The consequent separation of the Church and the world 100
Asceticism 102
The ethic of the Church which was developed out of this opposition
between the Church and the world, and how it bridged the gulf 1 1 o
Settlement of the social problems within the Church and by the
Church as a state within the State 1 1 2
Possessions 115
Work 1 18
Callings and classes 1 20
Trade 127
The Family 129
Slavery 132
Charity 133
The rise of a new class 1 38
Science and the reception of the Stoic ethic 142
Relation to the State 145
The attainment of a positive State ethic through the reception
of the Stoic doctrine of the moral Law of Nature 1 50
Theocratic conception of the Imperial Authority 155
Decisive significance of the Lex Naturae for the whole ethic of
Christian civilization 1 58
Results of development in the Early Church 161
CHAPTER 11
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
1. The Problem 201
The conception of the Christian unity of civilization and the
Middle Ages 201
Influence of events upon social theory 205
2. Early Social Developments as the Basis of the Mediaeval
Unity of Civilization 207
The formation of the ecclesiastical constitution and arrested
development in the East 207
3. The Territorial Church Period of the Early Middle Ages 215
The Germanic Territorial Church system 215
Significance of this Territorial Church system for Christian
civilization 218
CONTENTS
15
PAGE
4. The Reaction in favour of the Universal Church and the
Catholic Unity of Civilization 223
Reaction in favour of the supremacy of the Papacy 223
The result of this reaction: the Papal idea, the liberty of the
Church, the doctrine of the Sacraments and of Grace 225
Consequent development of the ecclesiastical unity of civilization 235
5. The Significance of Asceticism in the System of Mediaeval Life 237
The ascetic idea and its combination with the life of the world 237
Absorption of monasticism into the ecclesiastical system 241
Relative character of asceticism 243
6. Relative Approximation of the Actual Forms of Social Life
to the Ecclesiastical Ideal 246
The social history of the Middle Ages 246
Elements in mediaeval society which helped or hindered the
development of the Christian ethic 252
The significance of the town in the growth of a Christian civilization 2 54
7. The Illumination of the Theory of the Ecclesiastical Unity of
Civilization by the Thomist Ethic 257
Reconciling nature of the Thomist ethic 257
Further development of the conception of the Lex Naturae as the
means of this reconciliation 259
The idea of the ethical ascent and of the development from
Nature to Grace 262
Permanent conflicting tendencies within this structure 269
The nature of the idea of development which is here evolved 273
The classic significance of Thomism for the ethic and social
philosophy of Catholicism 278
8. Mediaeval Social Philosophy according to the Principles of
Thomism 280
A comprehensive Christian social philosophy only now becomes
possible 280
Formulation of a sociological fundamental theory: patriarchalism
and organism 284
The idea of a “cosmos of callings” evolved out of this fundamental
theory 293
Inner conflicts and antinomies within the fundamental theory 296
Charity, not social reform 303
The Catholic Law of Nature 305
Retrospect and Forecast 306
1 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
PAGE
9. The Absolute Law of God and of Nature, and the Sects 32S
Reappearance of the old hostility to the compromise of the
Church 328
The sect-type contrasted with the church-type 331
Radical view of the Law of Nature within the sect-type and further
dogmatic peculiarities 343
The Gregorian Reform as the starting-point of the development
of the sect movement 349
The Waldensians 354
The Franciscans 355
Wyclif and the Lollards 358
The Hussites 362
Peasant risings 369
Doctrine of popular sovereignty 372
Elements of Natural Right in the Conciliar Reform theory 375
The Civilization of the Towns and Individualism; Mysticism 376
Conclusion and Forecast 378
As the Table of Contents is full and detailed the Index consists
of tiames only; it will be found at the end of Volume Two ,
THE SOCIAL TEACHING
OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
FOREWORD
In accordance with my own desires and those of others, I have
gathered within this volume the fruit of my scattered researches.
Apart from my large work on the place of Protestantism in
contemporary culture, most of my researches have been gathered
into monographs, studies of method, and various sketches,
covering a great variety of subjects. Now that they appear in
public in collected form, it will be clear that, in spite of the fact
that they are drawn from so many sources, they all spring from a
unified plan. On this point a few words of explanation are
necessary.
The connection of ideas is easy to recognize. Trained in the
school of Ritschl, I learned very early that two elements were
united in the impressive teaching of this energetic and great
scholar : a distinct conception of traditional dogma by means of
which modern needs and problems were met, and just as decided
a conception of the modern intellectual and religious situation,
by means of which it seemed possible to accept and carry forward
the teaching of tradition, understood in the Ritschlian sense. The
question arose, therefore, quite naturally, first, whether this con-
ception were true to dogmatic tradition in its actual historical
sense, and, second, whether the present situation was being
interpreted as it actually is. Then it became clear that from
both sides a certain process of assimilation had been completed
which did not correspond with actual facts and which did
not permit the real contrast to appear in its full actuality. Thus I
found myself confronted by a double task : to make clear to
myself both the ecclesiastical dogmatic tradition of Protestantism
in its own historical sense, and the intellectual and practical
situation of the present day in its true fundamental tendencies.
Hence the double nature of my researches — the analysis of early
Protestantism and the analysis of the modem world. All this
research, however, was only intended to serve the purpose of
solving the systematic problem, in order to think through and
formulate the world of Christian thought and life in frank relation
to the modern world. This led me to researches in methodology
and in the philosophy of religion which are absolutely necessary
before a Christian doctrine of thought and life can be built up.
In the process, however, I found that the more I studied modern
problems the more I found' that the balance leaned to the side
of ethics. If Christianity is first and foremost a matter of practice,
then its main problems lie in the sphere of practical life, and it is
so THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
from this realm that the most complicated difficulties and contrasts
arise in opposition to the world of Christian life. Particularly in
relation to social ethics the ethic of the churches is out of date.
When, however, I pursued this line of thought, I was confronted
with this further question : What, then, would be the relation of
such a new and formative conception of the Christian attitude to
life to its own ancient organizations, the churches? Further, could
such a new conception, indeed, in any way be grafted on to the
old organizations at all and, if this were possible, what kind of
social adhesion or relation with a fellowship would be possible in
harmony with this new view of life?
It was considerations such as these which led to the researches
which are collected in this first volume. They readily became
unified when the sociological formulation of the problem was
applied to the whole sweep of the history of the Christian Church.
This unified point of view illuminated the significance and nature
of the varying forms of religious fellowship, the underlying
characteristics of the Christian Ethos in its relation to the ethical
problems and tasks of secular life, and the inner connection of
each formulated dogma to a fellowship group more or less affected
by it. At the same time this led me to a peculiar conception of the
nature of Christianity, its history and its relation to the general
history of civilization. This again led to progress in my whole
formulation of the theological problem in general. The results
have been summarized in the concluding section. They are
genuine results which have been gained from the process of
research, not theses which the book was written to support. This
is why they are placed at the end and not at the beginning. The
reader can, however, lighten his task by referring to the closing
section of the book — that is, if he does not prefer to allow the
results of the whole study to become clear to him naturally in the
course of his reading.
With its nearly one thousand pages this work has become a
very substantial volume. Especially in a subject of this kind, it was
necessary to support the actual text with a very wide range of
illustrations in the form of notes. In order to explain the facts
upon which my ideas are based and to relate the explanation to
the previous process of research, this annotation became in-
evitable. About two-thirds of the material had already been
published in the Archives for Social Science and Social Politics, but
the chapters on Calvinism, the Sects, and Mysticism are entirely
new. The introductory chapters have been revised and expanded
since they were published in the Archives ; but they were then
FOREWORD 21
taken out of their context. This explains why there is no reference
to some of the latest works on this subject.
There is one thing which consoles me for the enormous size of
this volume, and that is that it enables it to bear the weight and
the honour of a double dedication. The Philosophical Faculty at
Greifswald, in the year 1903, on the occasion of their Jubilee
celebrations, did me the honour of promoting me to the rank of
Doctor philosophias honoris causa . In the first place this honour was
accorded me on account of my inclusive study of Protestantism,
which had just appeared. In the present year, 1911, the Faculty
of Law at Breslau, on the occasion of its centenary celebrations,
gave me the honour of Doctor juris honoris causa , in recognition of
the work already published in the Archives , which is now contained
in this book. The present volume is closely connected with its
predecessor ; indeed, it is only in this volume that actual proofs
are provided for many of the statements made in the earlier
treatise. I therefore venture upon a double dedication for the
following reasons: the massive nature of this work, combined
with the fact that both these honours prove how clear a connec-
tion exists between philosophy and law and the general subject
of this book.
Both these honours also show very clearly that my work recog-
nizes no special theological or Christian methods of research. I
am, however, convinced, and believe that this work proves the
force of my conviction, that in the process the Christian outlook
on life loses nothing of its greatness or its inward significance.
ERNST TROELTSCH
Heidelberg
November 1, ign
INTRODUCTION AND PRELIMINARY
QUESTIONS OF METHOD
The Churches and the Social Problem
Amid all the social confusion of the present day, with its
clamour of conflicting voices, the churches also are making their
voice heard. These social conflicts are due in part to the growth
of large modern unified States, with their democratic tendencies
and their party struggles. They are also the outcome of modern
industrialization, the development of the proletariat, and the
emancipation of the masses in many lands. These problems do
not merely concern politicians, political economists, specialists in
social science, and modern independent philosophers of culture ;
they are also the concern of the churches, whose roots are
entwined with traditions of great historical importance and
vital energy. At the present time the churches are employing
their considerable powers of organization in the endeavour to
find a solution for these problems. To a great extent their efforts
coincide with those of the various political parties, particularly
with the Centre Party, the Conservatives, and the anti-Semitic
Mittelstandpolitik ;* this, however, means that the churches
themselves are also strongly influenced in their turn by the
political and class interests which these parties represent. To
some extent, however, the churches are trying to exercise their
influence in a practical way on religious, non-party lines, through
movements like the Protestant Social Congress and by the
promotion of scientific literature on social questions. They also
find a fruitful sphere of activity in the semi-ecclesiastical societies
and organizations of the Home Mission Movement and other
movements of the same kind. At any rate, since these religious
groups have perceived that the modern social situation has
brought them face to face with new problems and new duties in
the ordering of social life, they have plunged into the study of
these questions, both theoretically and practically. Linking their
investigations with those contained in the existing scientific litera-
ture on the subject, they have attempted to outline or to define a
peculiarly Christian doctrine of the State, of social science, and of
economics. The more clearly, too, that the churches have dis-
cerned the fact that all higher spiritual culture is largely dependent
upon the economic basis of life, the more earnestly they have
thrown their energies into an endeavour to understand and solve
m That is, the lower middle-class supporters of the Conservative and clerical
parties. — Translator.
24 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
these questions. In this endeavour they have also been aided by
several national political economists, and by several representa-
tives of political science. It is well known that leading government
officials are in the habit of taking an interest in these questions,
and that Bismarck in particular — in strange contrast to the rest of
his political realism and naturalism — favoured social reform, on
his own lines. In itself such a procedure is quite intelligible and
in order, since in point of fact the science of Society cannot create
ultimate values and standards from within, for even economic
science, in regard to the ultimate valuation of the goods which it
handles, and in regard to the complicated social, political, and
moral energies which it presupposes, is obliged to use institutions
outside the borders of its own special faculty . 1 The question,
therefore, is not whether it is permissible to formulate social
doctrines from the standpoint of the churches and of religion in
general ; all we have to do is to ask whether these attempts have
achieved something useful and valuable for the modern situa-
tion. In order to be able to answer this question, however, we need,
above all, a detailed knowledge of these endeavours and aspirations.
A task of this kind, however, is extremely complicated. To
attempt to estimate what the churches have actually achieved in
practice in social reform and in social science is such a broad
question that only a specialist with a training in politics and in
political economy, who has consecrated all his energies to the
investigation of these problems, would be fit to deal with the
subject. On this point I cannot allow myself to offer an opinion.
There is, however, another aspect of the question which, from the
theoretical point of view, is still more important ; I refer to the
theological aspect of the problem. This, then, is the question:
What is the basis of the social teaching of the churches? From the
point of view of their essential nature in principle what is their
attitude towards the modern social problem? And what should
be their attitude?
This question is all the more important since one of the special
advantages of ecclesiastical social science is that it possesses meta-
physical convictions based on principle. In this the churches are
one with the Social Democrats, and for that reason the political
party of the Centre, the Conservatives with their “patriarchal”
ideas, and the revolutionary Social Democrats have the strongest
power of influencing other people, whereas Liberalism, which by
its relative tendency is split up into individual peculiarities, prac-
tical compromises, and middle-class learning, either does not
1 See p. 35.
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 25
possess this power, or it possesses it no longer, since for the present,
at least, its fundamental individualistic idea has become ex-
hausted. A study of the history of doctrine on these lines is pre-
eminently a matter for the theologian and Church historian, or
at least for someone who is familiar with these subjects. For at
the outset we are faced at once with the fundamental fact that
the churches and Christianity, which are pre-eminently historic
forces, are at all points conditioned by their past, by the Gospel
which, together with the Bible, exerts its influence ever anew, and
by the dogmas which concern social life and the whole of civiliza-
tion. Whether in agreement or opposition, in dependence or in
change of meaning, all the modern ecclesiastical social doctrines
are determined by this point of view. Since their spiritual power
is only produced by this consciousness of an ancient and world-
wide religious tradition, their content also can only be understood
from this point of view. These modern ecclesiastical social doc-
trines would have to be studied in the light of the history of the
Christian ethic, and, properly speaking, in the light of its funda-
mental doctrines — if, indeed, there were such a thing as a history
of the Christian ethic — which could present the Christian Ethos
in its inward connection with the universal history of civiliza-
tion . 2 Since no history of this kind is in existence, I am forced to
open up the subject myself, and to try to answer the question
which has here been raised. My object will be to pave the way
for the understanding of the social doctrines of the Gospel, of the
Early Church, of the Middle Ages, of the post-Reformation
confessions, right down to the formation of the new situation in
the modern world, in which the old theories no longer suffice, and
where, therefore, new theories must be constructed, composed of
old and new elements, consciously or unconsciously, whether so
avowed or not.
Christian Sociological Development
The attempt, therefore, must be made to present a clear view
of the facts based on the results of this historical study. In order
to achieve this result the briefest possible presentation will
suffice. Brevity, indeed, will be an advantage, for in a small
compass it is possible to indicate the outstanding features of this
historical development, which, in any detailed treatment of the
subject, would very easily be hidden by the intricate and per-
plexing process of building up ecclesiastical dogmas, with their
particularly confusing details. The moment the problem is
• 2 See p. 35.
26 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
formulated, however, we are faced by one great difficulty : What,
after all, does constitute the “Social 55 element in relation to the
churches and to Christianity?
In face of the confusion which characterizes most of the writings
dealing with the problem when it has been thus stated, we need
at the outset to clear our minds as to the real content of the term
“Social 55 , in order to arrive at a clear formulation of this question.
If we examine a typical work of this kind, say, for instance, the
book by Nathusius, which has gone into its third edition, on the
“Co-operation of the Church in the Solution of the Social Ques-
tion 55 of 1904, we find that two elements have been inextricably
mingled, and that it is this confusion of thought which obviously
causes the obscurities and errors of the book. At one point the
writer speaks of a fellowship which issues from the religious idea
itself, of the “social character of Christianity 55 as a whole. On
closer consideration, however, this is something quite obvious;
it simply means the particular religious group-fellowship which is
the outcome of the religious object, representing the sociological
effect of the religious phenomenon. This, however, can be paral-
leled by any other phenomenon we may care to mention, such
as the sex-instinct, art, science, the earning of a living, or even any
favourite pursuit or passing intention which, in one way or
another, produces its own sociological effect, great or small,
permanent or temporary, upon the sociological circle which it
affects, and the constituent elements of such a group. 3 This has
nothing to do with the “Social 55 element in the usual sense of the
word. As a matter of fact, all sociological reflection shows us the
vast differences which exist in questions of basis and structure,
in their function and in their connection with other groups,
between these various sociological phenomena — differences which
are affected by the object which produces them. But it is plain
that the use of the word “Social 55 by Nathusius for this human
co-operation which proceeds from Christian thought confuses
everything. Hastily jumping to conclusions, he deduces from
Christianity, on the basis of its “Social 55 character, a principle of
social life in general. Since, according to the author, this social
life consists “in the natural relationships of sex, age, etc., in
natural economic necessities, in the classification to which they
give rise, in property, and in a human commonwealth of nations 55 ,
3 On this point compare the various treatises of Simmel on sociological
questions ; they are extremely instructive ; the idea which has been expressed
above is to be found in Soziologie der Ueber - und Unterordnung , Band XXIV (1907)
of this Archiv.
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 27
so also the social principle of Christianity becomes eo ipso the
principle of all these things. Hence we cannot be surprised that
the writer proceeds to say plainly: “That not only does Christ-
ianity contain a social spirit, a power which draws men and
unites them to each other, but that also, for that very reason,
certain principles are established for the natural classification of
mankind — relationships of sex and age and of conditions of life,
upon whose observance their healthy development depends!’ 5 3a
Nathusius fails to see that possibly the sociological group which
proceeds from the Christian view of life might be inwardly and
essentially different from those sociological groups which proceed
from other aims ; merely, for the sake of formal equality, because
they are “associating forces” they are forced into one mould, and
then the one is deduced from the other.
Secular Sociological Development
This, however, is far from being the only instance of serious
confusion in this process of thought. The second instance appears
in the question of the conception of Society, or of the “Social”
element, which has thus been cast into the sociological circle of
Christian ideas. This conception is anything but natural and
obvious, and does not in any way denote the sum- total of the
sociological relationships which are present and possible alongside
of the sociological group formed by the ideas of Christianity.
Nathusius gathers up all other forms of association into a unity,
and contrasts this unity with the Christian sociological unity,
and then reduces both unities like Reason and Revelation to the
same thing, because ultimately, that is in God, they are one. The
main characteristic of this argument, however, is the habit of the
Christian theologian and apologist of setting everything as a unity
over against the absolute nature of Christianity, and then some-
how of tracing both unities back to a common source, and thus
of smoothing out all difficulties ; this is an error which disappears
when it is placed in the clear light of dispassionate historical
research. This habit of thought, however, contains a more far-
reaching error : a vast extension of the general use of the concep-
tion of the “Social”, which makes any definite and clear formula-
tion of the problem impossible. This is a very frequent miscon-
ception among non-theological dogmatic thinkers, the repre-
sentatives of the conception of Society based on natural science.
The “Social” is neither the sum- total of “natural” forms of
association contrasted with the association which has been effected
* a See p. 307 (Nathusius).
28 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
by “supernatural” means, nor the sum-total of human association
in general, which, as a universal conception, would include every
sociological phenomenon as a particular detail, and by which it
would then be explained and understood. If this argument were
valid, it would lead to the same confusion of ideas as we see in
Nathusius only from the opposite direction. Instead of allowing the
idea of the “Social” to be swallowed up in the Christian-socio-
logical ideal, it would mean that the latter would be absorbed
into the supposedly clear and unambiguous conception of the
“Social” itself. Here the Socialist dogmatist is a warning to the
theological dogmatist; a paper like Kautsky’s “Programme”
Pamphlet: Social Democracy and the Catholic Church (2nd ed., 1906)
is a good example. 3 b
In the current sense, the idea of the “Social” means a definite,
clearly defined section of the general sociological phenomena —
that Is, the sociological relations which are not regulated by the
State, nor by political interest, save in so far as they are indirectly
influenced by them. This sociological section is composed of the
various questions which arise out of economic life, the sociological
tension between various groups with different customs and aims,
division of labour, class organization, and some other interests
which cannot be directly characterized as political, but which
actually have a great influence on the collective life of the State ;
since the development of the modern constitutional State, how-
ever, these interests have definitely separated themselves from It.
The “social problem”, therefore, really consists in the relation
between the political community and these sociological phe-
nomena, which, although they are essentially non-political, are yet
of outstanding importance from the political point of view. Thus
Lorenz von Stein, for instance, from his observation of the devel-
opment of France, set the conception of “Society” alongside that
of the State, and heralded the social problem of the present day.
Rodbertus, the other prophet of the social problem, has defined
Society as the “personified total content of the peripheral life-
activities, which express themselves in the lower strata of social life,
through individual multiplicities, in those sections of social life
which the State does not control”. 4 It is, however, essential to
retain this narrower significance of the words “society” and
“social” as they are particularly accentuated by the present situa-
See p. 36.
4 Gf. Gothein, in the article on Gesellschaft in HWB der Staatswissensckqften .
L. von Stein: Der Sozialismus und Kommunismus des heutigen Frankreichs 3 1842*
Dietzel: Rodbertus , //, i888 3 p. 46.
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 29
tion. For it is impossible to speak of Society as the total sum of
varying grades of sociological groups, with their mutual com-
plexities and interactions. It is not an entity which can be surveyed
scientifically. Because of the infinitude of its groupings and the
manifold ways we may choose for the linking up of sociological
phenomena, Society is something inconceivable — an abstraction
like civilization, or history in general, about which only dilettanti
speak as a whole. In truth, all thought of it involves a seizing and
relating of some particular factor which interests us, and by means
of which the sociological phenomena which are related to it come
into the field of vision at the same time. Even the keenest thinker,
who is capable of looking at things from the broadest point of
view and in abstract terms, if he tries to think about Society as a
whole, finds his ideas dispersing in all directions, into the infinitude
of sociological classifications which emerge from any other possible
point of view.
There is no “natural-science” conception of Society such as
there is of mechanics, which will cover all particular phenomena.
The conception of Society is an historical conception, and out of
an infinite wealth of individual sociological developments it
is always only able to seize upon certain phenomena and to
study them in their various connections ; even when this con-
ception seizes upon those aspects which are most important for
life — and in so doing naturally touches an extremely widespread
complication of sociological groups — it never exhausts the uni-
versal conception of Society in general . 5 This means, however,
that in this instance “Society” and the “Social”, in the sense of
the problem of the present day, is only a specially important and
a strongly emphasized part of the general sociological situation;
it is a part only, not the whole. The relation of Christianity to
social problems, therefore, can only mean the relation to these
great questions specially emphasized by the present situation,
which, however, have always been present in “Society” in the
narrower sense of the word, as it is used by Stein. However
inconsistent it may be to class Christianity with all other socio-
logical phenomena which are characterized by the faculty of
creating the sociological “association” type, precisely because it
6 It is quite plain that the information which is here used Is based upon
material gathered from the following works : Simmel: Problems der Geschichts -
philosophis‘d 1907; Rickert: Die Grenzen der naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildungy
1902; Kistiakowski: Gesellschaft und Einzelwesen , 1899; Max Weber : Stammlers
“Oberwindung” der materialistischen Geschichtsavffassung (Vol. XXIV {1907) of this
Archiv ) ; G. Jellinek; Recht d%s modernen Staates, I z , 1905, pp. 1-9. 24-32.
3 o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
possesses this faculty, it is equally inconsistent to use the terms
"society” and the "social element” with which Christianity is
contrasted to indicate Society as a whole. Indeed, even Stein’s
conception of Society, which includes everything which does not
come under the scope of the modern constitutional State, is still
too broad. By "Society” modem science means, and rightly,
primarily the social relationships which result from the economic
phenomena. That is to say, it is the Society composed of all who
labour, who are divided up into various classes and professional
groups according to the work they do, which produces and
exchanges goods, a Society organized upon the basis of the
economic needs of existence, with all its manifold complications.
Both Elements combined in a Fundamental Social Theory
It is true, of course, that a sociological point of view which
issues from universal ideas, like the Christian regulation of the
connection between the individual and the community, certainly
constitutes a general fundamental sociological theory, which in
some way or another will exert an influence upon all social
relationships. This influence, however, is only intermittent; some-
times it is strong and sometimes it is weak, sometimes it is clear
and sometimes it is confused, and it can never be held to be part
of the social tissue of relations itself. All that can be done is to
attempt to discover the possible influence of this fundamental
theory in particular instances, in definite social groups. For all
these social groups possess independent instincts of organization ;
all that we can do, therefore, is to try to discover how far the
religious-sociological fundamental theory has been able to pene-
trate into these motives, and to what extent it has been able to
assimilate these groups into itself. Wherever this has taken place
it will be found that the process of development has been very
different within the various social groups. In particular, the
economic form of "Society” based on the division of labour
always remains an independent phenomenon, with its own
sociological basis, in contrast to the spirit of fellowship which is
derived from religious ideas. Further, the question of the inward
influence of Christianity upon the sense of personality, and upon
ethical mutual relationships, is certainly of immense importance,
but in the main it can be neither conceived nor answered. The
only method of attempting to find an answer at all is by investi-
gating the concrete effect of its influence in different social groups.
In the course of such an investigation, however, it will become
evident that great tracts of social life, like that of the economic-
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 31
social order, throw a great deal of light upon the general funda-
mental tendency of Christian sociology, which permit us to draw
certain inferences about the general character, and the effect on
civilization, of Christian-sociological principles. This will be a
valuable deduction, which will be a by-product of our inquiry
into the relation between Christian thought and the “Social 9 *.
We must realize, however, that in so doing we are narrowing the
universal by representing It in terms of a particular problem.
The “Social 55 in an intelligible sense does not mean “Society 55 in
general, and certainly not the ethical life in general — it is merely
a section; and all the light which is cast on the sociological
effects on civilization of Christianity from the standpoint of
the “Social 55 only constitutes an illumination which is derived
from a specially important province of culture, but it is not a
revelation of its collective sociological influence upon civilization
as a whole.
This leads, however, to a further important point. In our
modern way of speech the State and Society are conceived as
quite distinct from each other, and the characteristic conception
of Society only arises out of the contrast with the modern, formal
constitutional conception of the State. It is only in the light of
this contrast that the whole conception is given clear and con-
crete meaning. Now, however, a quite new and special problem
arises when this Society, which is characterized by its separation
and difference from the State, is related to the Church or the
churches. Obviously through this process of contrast it gains a
neW meaning. It then becomes a contrast between the sociological
group, which is organized from the viewpoint of the religious idea
of love to God and man, and those sociological forces which have
been organized from an entirely secular point of view.
Function of the Religious Ethig within this Theory
The modern social problem is thus first of all orientated by the
idea of the State, and by its orientation towards the Church it
becomes the quite different problem of the relation between the
religious forces and the economic social and political forces.
This constitutes the element of truth in the distinction which
doctrinal theologians make between the religious social group
and the opposing unity composed of the non-religious social
groups. But the difference is not that which exists between the
“natural 55 and the “supernatural 55 ; it is the distinction between
an association which proceeds from a religious aim and the most
important associations which exist for purely temporal ends. It
32 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
is neither the general conception of the “natural”, nor that of the
“Social” which is expressed in the social group with a purely
temporal purpose, but both the most powerful and far-reaching
sociological formations which exist alongside of the religious social
group, and their equal basis in a point of reference which concerns
this world, whereas the churches claim that they constitute a
religious, that is a supernatural, point of reference. Thus the
State again tends to become identified with economic social
problems, and the social doctrines of the Church (apart from its
own view of its own sociological nature) become the doctrine of
its relation both to the State and to Society, which are the most
important secular forces confronting the Church . 6
Thus it is an actual fact of history that from the beginning all
the social doctrines of Christianity have been likewise doctrines
both of the State and of Society. At the same time, owing to the
emphasis of Christian thought upon personality, the Family is
always regarded as the basis both of the State and of Society, and
is thus bound up with all Christian social doctrine. Once more,
therefore, the conception of the “Social” widens out, since in the
development of a religious doctrine of fellowship the Family, the
State, and the economic order of Society are combined as closely
related sociological formations. They do not exhaust the meaning
of Society in general, but they are the great objects which the
religious structure of Society must seek to assimilate, whereas it
can leave the other elements to look after themselves. Christian
social doctrine, therefore, is a doctrine of the most important
non-religious sociological structures which are erected upon an
independent foundation, or, to use its own language, of its relation
with the most powerful social forces of the “world”. If we admit
that the State and Society, together with innumerable other
forces, are still the main formative powers of civilization, then the
ultimate problem may be stated thus: How can the Church
harmonize with these main forces in such a way that together they
will form a unity of civilization?
Thus the question of the attitude of the churches towards the
social problem also includes their attitude towards the State.
It is precisely that modern separation between the idea of politics
and of Society (which was only possible because the Church,
which had hitherto been supreme, was now set aside and ignored)
which makes the modern social doctrines of the churches so
extraordinarily difficult, because, in point of fact, they have to
deal at the same time both with the State and with the Church,
* See p. 36.
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 33
and yet under the influence of the catchword “social 33 , in their
Christian-social ardour, they only plunge into the isolated
“Social 53 problem. Thus even Nathusius in his theory entirely
overlooked the State, as if the State itself had not the most burning
interest in the social problem, and as though it would ever allow
the churches to solve the question from a point of view which is
often essentially different from its own. Thus, on the other hand,
in earlier days the churches found it possible to solve the social
problem in their own way, because they were able to keep both
Society and the State in a position of natural dependence upon
themselves, and because both the State and Society willingly and
entirely submitted to the power of the Faith, and the State placed
itself at the disposal of the Church for the realization of her ideal.
This is the point at which there still remains to-day the charac-
teristic difference between the Catholic and Protestant social
doctrines ; the Catholic Church still demands, even at the present
day, dominion over the State, in order to be able to solve the
social problem on ecclesiastical lines; the Protestant churches,
with their freedom from the State, are uncertain in their aim;
sometimes their aim seems to be a Christian State, and sometimes
it is that of a purely ecclesiastical social activity exercised along-
side of the State. On the other hand, at the present time, to a
great extent the State is inclined to look upon the churches as
free associations representing private interests, and thus to regard
them as part of that “Society 35 from which the State is differen-
tiated . 7
The praiseworthy bluntness and almost brutal directness of the
statements of Nathusius, however, only reveal a confusion of
thought which exists in many other minds, though it may be
expressed in a less obvious manner. 7a Men think that with the
“Social 33 , that is the “sociological 53 nature of the Church, they
have already solved “social 55 problems, that is, the problems
which belong to the life of Society and of the State. They think
that if they form an organization which expresses the love which
flows forth from God and returns to Him once more, they are also
meeting the need of the social groups which make up humanity
as a whole. However, that cannot be admitted for an instant;
indeed, every idea of that kind only obscures the understanding
of the real historical significance of the Gospel, and of its historical
development, and all the talk we hear so frequently about the
“social spirit of Christianity 33 is full of this ambiguous meaning,
even with reference to the problems of the present day. These
7 See p. 36. • 7a See p. 37.
VOL. 1.
c
34 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
ideas are not necessarily false, but they can be interpreted in
various ways, and they lead us astray.
Guiding Principles of this Survey
We have now indicated the guiding principles of our subject.
In the first place we shall have to inquire into the intrinsic socio-
logical idea of Christianity, and its structure and organization.
This will always be found to contain an ideal of a universal
fundamental theory of human relationships in general, which will
extend far beyond the borders of the actual religious community
or Church. The problem then will be how far this fundamental
theory will be able to penetrate into actual conditions and
influence them ; in what way also it will feel the reflex influence
of these conditions, and to what extent in such a situation an
inner life unity can be, or is, actually created.
We shall then have to ask, further : What is the relation between
this sociological structure and the “Social”? That is the State, the
economic order with its division of labour, and the family?
Naturally, in historical fact the latter will always be treated and
regulated by the former, but the problems themselves are con-
nected with the following questions. What was the actual influence
of the sociological religious fundamental theory upon other social
groups? And thus, what has been the actual influence of the
churches upon social phenomena? On the other hand, what
influences did the religious community on its side receive from the
politico-social formations ? 8 Finally, to what extent was an inward
contact with, and penetration of, social life rendered possible, and
how far did it lead to an inward uniformity of the collective life ? 9
In the ancient world that ideal was never attained; in the
Middle Ages and in the daughter churches of the Reformation
it was realized, at least in ideal and in theory; in the modem
world the discord has again become evident.
Thus a direct survey of the Ancient World, of the Middle Ages,
of the Reformation, and finally of the Modern World, causes our
material to fall into its natural divisions. First of all, however, we
must direct our attention to the Gospel and to the Bible itself,
and also to the Early Church, for they constitute the permanent
basis of our inquiry.
8 A brilliant example of the latter formulation of the question, with special
reference to the economic sphere, is Max Weber’s well-known work Die
Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, Jg., 1903/4 of this Archiv ; for an
example of the former, see the article entitled “Kirchen” und “Sekten” in Nord-
amerika. Christl. Welt , 1906, pp. jj<5 f., 577 ff. . 9 See p. 37.
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD
NOTES TO INTRODUCTION
35
1 (p. 24.) Schmoller’s Grundriss der Volkswirischaft illustrates this point with an
admirable breadth of understanding and of knowledge; it reveals equally
clearly his independence of all standards of judgment, for all that he had at
his disposal for this purpose was the historical-psychological causal connection
from which he was able to gain either no norms or values at all, or when he
did gain any he was forced to use sophistry.
2 (p* 25.) Histories of the Christian Ethic by Luthhardt , i888!gg (orthodox
Lutheran) (in the Gospel and ideally the Christian ethic is the penetration of
the system of secular callings with the spirit of trust in God and the love of one’s
neighbours). Gass, 1881 (a great deal of material and very little order : reconcilia-
tion and penetration of the Christian-supernatural and the Human-natural).
Ziegler, 1886 (Theory of the break-up of Christian Dualism into modern
Immanence and Autonomy). Here the Christian ethic is everywhere regarded
essentially from the point of view of the assistance of grace granted to sinful
weakness or impotence ; essentially, therefore, it is concerned with the doctrine
of Grace. Therefore the question of the special content of the Christian Ethos,
and of the connection of its content with the other norms and values of civilized
humanity, is only treated incidentally. This is also true of the consideration of
the Christian ethic which Jodi gives in his Geschichte der Ethik , I 2 , igo 6 . Along
with Stoicism and Platonism the Christian ethic is the type of the spiritually
idealistic, metaphysical, and dualistic ethic, which, based upon religious illusions,
asserts essentially the aid of grace, and with that an extreme Dualism, which
may even develop into asceticism ; otherwise, however, in contrast to Stoicism
and Platonism, it contains elements of barbarian ignorance; indeed, at its
best it is perhaps only a barbarian and popular mythical form of the Stoic-
Platonic doctrine. In all these cases there is an insufficient analysis of the
fundamental ethical ideas of the Gospel, and therefore also of an adequate
analysis of the sociological constitution peculiar to Christianity and its social
relations. Uhlhorn: Die Ckristhche Liebestatigkeit , I 2 1882 , II 1884, III i8go s is
a very valuable work ; although, naturally, it is not exhaustive, it deals with
the connection between Christianity and the general life of society, especially
on the economic side. On the whole the standpoint is orthodox Lutheran.
The Geschichte des Pietismus by Ritschl is similar (1880/84/86) : in it the writer
develops in a classic way the ethic of a modernized form of Lutheranism “open
to the world”. — The conceptions of the history of civilization developed by
Jakob Burkhardt , Franz Overbeck , and Friedrich Nietzsche are entirely opposed to
the views of the writers who have just been mentioned ; these three men share
a good many ideas, but in many respects also they are very dissimilar. From
their point of view the Christian ethic, as in Catholicism, seems to be essentially
asceticism; the only difference is that in them the emphasis of Catholicism on
the assimilation of the natural sphere of life is absent. In point of fact the whole
question of asceticism is one of the main problems connected with this subject.
But the purely ascetic interpretation of the Gospel is a misreading of its chief
religious ideas, and therefore it underestimates the sociological energies which
issue from this leading religious idea ; all three thinkers are indeed decidedly
hostile to the masses and to the whole idea of the “Social”, therefore either they
have no interest at all in this aspect of the subject or they simply treat it
polemically. If Christianity were pure asceticism, then all we could say about
its social doctrines in general would be that logically it has produced monasti-
36 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
cism, and that illogically it has produced a semi-monasticism which is adjusted
to the life of the world. It is, however, obvious that this statement does not cover
the whole subject, and that there must be a good deal more In it than this.
Renan also, in his Origines du Chrisfiamsme , now and again has expressed similar
ideas, but he has also recognized the existence of far-readhing ethical and
sociological ideas,
3b (p. 28.) Here from the very outset the Church is regarded solely as an
economic phenomenon, since, being a sociological phenomenon, she must be
essentially an economic phenomenon as well. In contrast with democracy and
all forms of non-sacerdotal religion which agree with society as such, the
Christian religion, as a degenerate product, is a new social group of a com-
munistic nature. As it extends among the masses, however, it produces a ruling
class of its own, the clergy, and the further course of development only serves to
consolidate the political and economic dominant position of the clergy ; this
class then becomes in part a rival, and in part a confederate, of the political and
economic ruling class of the day. There is, therefore, no question here of a
religious-sociological development issuing from a specifically religious motive ;
the Church is simply absorbed into the general course of economic and social
development, within which at the beginning she represents a communistic
class-movement of the poor, concealing her economic-communistic idea beneath
the veil of her general religious idea of love. This explains the church policy of
the present-day proletariat ; it accepts the communistic tendency hidden under
the veil of religion, and protects the ideas of religion by the statement that
religion is a private matter, and it secures the sympathies of the Catholics by
fighting against all exceptional legislation, as, for example, that against the
Religious Orders. At the same time the power of the clergy is to be broken
through the separation of Church and State, the abolition of religion from the
schools, and the fight against the idea of religion by the stress laid on Socialistic
science. In this contradictory church policy, which aims at protecting and
annihilating religion at one and the same time, the real meaning of the whole
is expressed, i.e. that in the Church there is something more than a phenomenon
of the economic class struggle, that behind the “ideological religious veil 55 an
independent interest is concealed. This admission, however, is more diplomatic
than sincere, and it has no real effect upon the conception of the problem
Itself, which cannot be solved at all from the point of view of the dogmatic
general conception of “Society”.
6 (p. 32.) Science and art are excluded from this statement, since, if the sphere
of the “social 55 is rather rigidly limited, they do not belong to it, although they
are very important component parts of the sociological system in general, and
science in particular plays a vital part in a religion of knowledge and of faith.
This must, however, be reserved for the history of dogma and of art. We may,
however, point out the interesting parallels that here the relation to the
“world 55 — that is, to the social structure which is not directly conditioned by
religion — points to the following secularization in the political and social
sphere. In science and in art also it is much restricted.
7 (p- 33*) this respect it is interesting to note the development of Friedrich
Naumann, who by his Christian Socialism was thrown more and more upon
the State, through a realistic knowledge of the actual situation, until he came to
regard the social problem almost entirely from the point of view of the State ;
the Church, and Christianity in general, he relegates to the sphere of the purely
personal and ethical life {Wench Geschichte der National~Sozialen> 1905 ) . Catholic
social policy, on the contrary, claims first of all that the State should submit to
INTRODUCTION AND QUESTIONS OF METHOD 37
the point of view of the Church. Cf. Theod. Meyer: Lie christhch-ethischen
Sozialprinzipien, igo 4. This implies the “organic”, that is, the theociatically
unified theory. The distinctive element in the Christian social doctrine lies in
this: “That the Christian idea of the social organism excludes naturally and
organically all absolutist arbitrary action on the part of the central principle
(that is, of the State), whereas the non-Chiistian idea naturally and essentially
includes it.” This means opposition to absolutism, not merely in the form of
government, but in the principle of the State itself. Similaily, on the other hand,
the Conservatives never produce an energetic social policy, because owing to
the political passivity of Lutheranism they do not dare to summon the State
to reform, quite apart from the fact that their own political interest to a great
extent coincides with this passivity. For the assignment of the churches to
“Society” as a consequence of the modern conception of the State, see Troeltsch:
Die Trennung von Staat und Kirche , 1907, pp. 23-48,
7a (p* 33*) As, f° r example, the Christian Socialism of St. Simon, who pro-
claimed that the metaphysical-religious basis needed by every positive social
system was provided by the Christian idea of fellowship ; at the same time he
saw clearly that his nouveau christianisme would have to be really new — that is,
that it would need to recognize the values of life in the world far moie openly
(v. Stein: Soziahsrnus und Kommunismus , p, 174), Even so, however, the Christian
spirit of brotherhood tends to become merged in the very indefinite idea of
equality as the social principle in general. The following study will show how
contrary to history is this identification of the two.
9 (p. 34.) These, then, are the formulations of the problem in principle, from
the point of view of the ethical, theological, or cultural-philosophical interest,
whereas the previously named examples of Max Weber apply simply and solely
to the region of facts, from the standpoint of economic history and of social
history. A work like that of v. Schulze-Gavernitz: Britischer Imperialismus und
englischer Fr&handel> igo6 , treats both kinds of problem at once. In the present
work we are concerned essentially with the second group because this problem
forms the real main interest of the social doctrines of the churches, whereas
research into the actual position and influence of the Christian forces of thought
upon the political and economic sphere only are relevant as presuppositions for
the reply to this theoretical question. So far as the concrete side of these
problems is concerned, my work only has access in a limited way to original
sources, at least so far as the Early and the Mediaeval Church is concerned.
Whatever merit it may possess is not due to independent study of the sources,
but to its character of independent thought, which seeks to produce out of the
study of a given situation a unification of the whole into a theory of the attitude
of the religious element to the political-social element. I believe, however, that
where questions of fact are concerned I have everywhere based my study upon
the best authorities.
THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF
THE CHRISTIAN CHURGHES
CHAPTER. I
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
i. THE GOSPEL
Primitive Christianity an Independent Phenomenon
In order to understand the foundation principles of Christianity
as a whole, in its relation to social problems, it is of the utmost
importance to recognize that the preaching of Jesus and the
creation of the Christian Church were not due in any sense to
the impulse of a social movement. To put it quite plainly:
Christianity was not the product of a class struggle of any kind ;
it was not shaped, when it did arise, in order to fit into any such
situation ; indeed, at no point was it directly concerned with the
social upheavals of the ancient world. The fact, however, remains
that Jesus addressed Himself primarily to the oppressed, and to
the <c little ones 55 of the human family, that He considered wealth
a danger to the soul, and that He opposed the Jewish priestly
aristocracy which represented the dominant ecclesiastical forces of
His day. It is also clear that the Early Church sought and won
her new adherents chiefly among the lower classes in the cities,
and that members of the well-to-do, educated upper classes only
began to enter the Church in the second century, and then
only very gradually; and we are aware that this change did
not take place without a good deal of opposition on the part of
the educated and wealthy sections of Society.
At the same time it is equally clear that in the whole range of
the Early Christian literature — missionary and devotional — both
within and without the New Testament, there is no hint of any
formulation of the “Social 55 question ; the central problem is always
purely religious, dealing with such questions as the salvation of
the soul, monotheism, life after death, purity of worship, the
right kind of congregational organization, the application of
Christian ideals to daily life, and the need for severe self-discipline
in the interests of personal holiness ; further, we must admit that
from the beginning no* class distinctions were recognized; rather
4 o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
they were lost sight of in the supreme question of eternal salvation
and the appropriation of a spiritual inheritance. It is worthy of
special note that Early Christian apologetic contains no arguments
dealing either with hopes of improving the existing social situation,
or with any attempt to heal social ills ; it is based solely upon
theology, philosophy, and ethics ; further, these ethical considera-
tions always aim at fostering habits of sobriety and industry, that
is, they are concerned with the usefulness of the Christian as a
citizen. Jesus began His public ministry, it is true, by proclaiming
the Kingdom of God as the great hope of Redemption, and this
Hope was cherished by the Early Christian Church as a whole ;
this “Kingdom”, however, was never regarded as a perfect social
order to be created by the Power of God rather than by the
skill of man. The “Hope of the Kingdom” was not an attempt to
console those who were suffering from social wrongs by promising
them happiness and compensation, perhaps even to the extent of
complete revolution, in another existence — an assurance given by
the Gospel to the destitute over against the dominant forces of
contemporary human society. This Message of the Kingdom was
primarily the vision of an ideal ethical and religious situation,
of a world entirely controlled by God, in which all the values of
pure spirituality would be recognized and appreciated at their
true worth. When, later on, the idea of a future redemption
receded into the background, giving place to the idea of a
redemption already achieved through the Life and Death of
Christ, the values of redemption were still purely inward, ethical,
and spiritual, leading inevitably and naturally to a sphere of
painless bliss. This is the foundation fact from which we have
to start . 10
This point of view is further explained and supported by the
fact that parallel religious systems and groups — as, for example,
the great mass of so-called Gnosticism, or the Mithraic Mysteries —
did not adopt the policy of preaching a social gospel for a certain
class, nor did they advocate an attack on social wrongs ; they were
rather institutions of a higher theology, of mightier “mysteries”,
of a more certain salvation . 11 Even when we find communistic
groups among the Gnostics, particularly the Carpocratians,
whose spirit and outlook were far from Christian, we see that their
influence was confined to their immediate circle, and that they
did not advocate any programme of general social and political
reform. From the second century, to a great extent, the transcen-
dental interest was paramount, and the desire to improve social
10 See p.165. ' 11 See p.167.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 41
conditions in any practical way had died down. This, however, is
not at all surprising. Although, from the time of the Pelopon-
nesian Wars and the Reform Movement of the Gracchi the class
struggles of the ancient world were shattering and profound, and
although the ideals — socio-political, economic, socialistic, com-
munist, and anarchist — produced by the politics of democracy and
by philosophical reflection and literature were widely diffused , 12
in the main the feverish period of these struggles ended with the
Hellenistic Empires followed by the Empire of the Caesars. Order
and prosperity returned, and social upheaval and oppression, the
policy of exploitation which had caused so much misery, coupled
with the insecurity of the wage-earners, were all lessened. The
iron stability of the Monarchy influenced the whole spirit of social
and political order, and all free movement retired into the sphere
of personal, interior life, into the domain of ethical and religious
reflection.
The reduction of the slave markets as one result of the Pax
Romania made it possible for a middle class to arise once more.
That social righteousness, so long and so ardently desired, lay
now in the hands of the Emperor, and the great humanitarian
School of the Stoics (which believed that the purest ideal had
only been realized in remote antiquity), taught men, on the one
hand, to acquiesce in the present condition of society, with all its
limitations, while, on the other hand, it influenced Imperial legis-
lation in favour of the most humane reforms . 13 It is true, of course,
that the social history of the Imperial period has not yet been
studied in much detail, but we know that the process of the
dissolution of ancient society was long delayed. The primitive
Christian communities, however, had very little to do with the
most important socio-historical events of the Imperial period:
the disappearance of the peasant class, the reduction of the num-
ber of slaves, the development of slavery into serfdom, the transfer
of capital to the hands of the owners of large estates, the with-
drawal of power from the coast towns into the interior, the
complete alteration of military and civil life, with the final
reversion to rural life . 14 It is not difficult to understand why these
events affected the earliest Christian communities so little, for
during the first few centuries the Christians belonged to the lower
classes in the towns, and shared in the gradual improvement in
social conditions which took place in urban life ; again, their real
centre lay in the East, where social cleavages were far fewer ^ thus
in their general outlook these communities were rather middle
12 Seep. 168. * 13 Seep. 168. w Seep. 168.
42 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
class than working class, and, in spite of all their hopes of a new
world, they were also very anxious for ordered conditions and for
civic usefulness.
Further, in the ancient world, in which the peasants were at
least theoretically citizens, the struggles for their rights were
Included in the struggles of the bourgeoisie ; there were no factories
at that time, in the modern sense of the term, and there was no
large body of free wage-earners ; hence a great social movement
in favour of economic freedom, or even the rise of a new class,
would have been quite impossible. The democratic struggles
which actually took place were always semi-political, and were
concerned with such questions as land distribution and the lessen-
ing of financial burdens ; all along, the continuance of the lowest
class as a slave class was accepted by everyone as inevitable. The
idea of emancipation was practically never included in attempts
to improve the lot of the slaves. Thus, apart from the peace and
order established by the Empire, there was no class-movement for
social freedom. The various philosophical theories and political
romances certainly indicate, on the ethical and inward side of
life, some modification of violent contrasts, but they cannot be
held to signify the emergence of a new class. In the last resort,
also, we ought not to think of the primitive Christian communities
as in any way belonging entirely to one social class. It is true that
for a long time the Church membership was mainly composed of
slaves, freedmen, and manual labourers, although at the same
time, as Overbeck rightly remarks, when we take into considera-
tion the total number of slaves at that time, and recall also the
caution which was exercised in receiving slaves Into membership,
we realize that we must not exaggerate their share in the Early
Church; at all events, special provision was made to exclude
slaves who were eager to obtain their freedom. From the very
outset some of the members came from the upper classes ; indeed,
it was they who were chiefly responsible for providing the neces-
sary financial support and the places where the Christians could
gather for fellowship and worship. During the reign of Domitian,
Christianity permeated every section of Society, including the
highest Court circles, and Pliny’s famous letter speaks distinctly
of multi omnis ordinis . From the time of Commodus the upper
classes took an increasing share in the life of the Christian
Church. All this is only natural when we realize that we are
here dealing with an essentially religious movement, and it is a
clear proof of the error of the view which would have us believe
that we are dealing with a “class-movemeftt of the proletariat”,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 43
or with a religious reshaping of the Socialism of the ancient
world. 1 5
Christianity and Religious Movements
in the Graeco-Roman World
It is, therefore, clear that the rise of Christianity is a religious
and not a social phenomenon. For although religion is inter-
woven with life as a whole, in development and dialectic it has
an independent existence. A new era of creative religious experi-
ence and sensitiveness to religious influences characterized the
close of the ancient world. The way had been prepared for this
change by a number of factors, which may be briefly enumerated :
the destruction of national religions, which was a natural result
of the loss of national independence ; the mingling of races, which
led naturally to the mingling of various cults ; the rise of mystery-
religions, with their exclusive emphasis upon the inward life, and
their independence of questions of nationality and birth; the
fusion of various fragments of religion which had broken away
from their national foundation; the philosophical religion of
culture with its varied forms of assimilation to the popular
religions ; the need of a world empire for a world religion, a need
which was only partially satisfied by worship of the Emperor; the
amazing deepening and spiritualizing of ethical thought during a
period of intellectual development which covered four hundred
years of unexampled richness in criticism and intensive growth ;
and, finally, the decline of polytheism (which was connected with
all these factors) both in its Mythus and in its forms of worship,
and the desire for a final form of religion which would offer
eternal values to mankind.
The close of the era of antiquity was marked by two out-
standing developments : [a) the destruction of the popular
religions, due to a variety of causes, though in the last resort it
was due to the fact that religious thought itself had gradually
become more spiritual and more ethical ; (b) a new and powerful
religious movement, due to the mingling of many varied currents
of thought. 18 Ultimately, however, this development was the
result of an independent development in the religious idea itself.
It was out of this situation that Christianity arose ; the Church
15 For the social composition of the community cf. Keim 9 164 , 319; Ovcrbeck, 188;
especially Harnack : Mission , 2 77 , and Bigelmair: Die Beteiligung der Christen
am offentlichen Leben y 1902, pp. 208-226; Knopf: Die soziale Zusammensetzung der
altesten heidenchristlkhen Gemeinden y Z* f Theol. ti. Kirche , 1900 ; and Knopf:
Kachapost . Z^dlter y pp . 64 jf 16 See p. X 70.
44 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
became the receptacle for the new ideas which grew out of this
religious development, and, as far as possible, it linked them up
with the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
If, however, the process which I have just described gives a
true picture of the relation of Christianity to the inner religious
development of the ancient world, wc see at once the reason for
its appeal to the lower classes, and its development from them.
This attitude, however, cannot be explained as the alleged
product of a social process, but simply as one which has arisen
out of the nature of a new religious movement. New religious
movements of this kind develop along two lines ; on the one hand,
they proceed from the rarefied atmosphere of cultivated thoughtful
circles, and express themselves in criticism and speculation; their
actual importance depends upon the depth of the real religious
vitality which these forms of criticism and speculation conceal.
Platonism and Stoicism, each in its own way, are examples of
new religious movements of this kind. Essentially, howevei', both
are systems of reflection and attempts to reach truth through the
reason, and therefore they never achieve the specifically religious
power of a faith founded on revelation. Conscious of their weak-
ness, they cling in part to the old popular religion, which they
merely explain in somewhat different terms, and in part they base
their confidence on the power of the abstract arguments which
each Individual may construct for himself after quiet reflection
on the explanations offered by these systems. On the other hand,
it is the lower classes which do the really creative work, forming
communities on a genuine religious basis. They alone unite
imagination and simplicity of feeling with a non-reflective habit
of mind, a primitive energy, and an urgent sense of need. On such
a foundation alone is it possible to build up an unconditional
authoritative faith in a Divine Revelation with simplicity of sur-
render and unshaken certainty. Only within a fellowship of this
kind is there room for those who have a sense of spiritual need,
and who have not acquired the habit of intellectual reasoning,
which always regards everything from a relative point of view.
All great religious movements based on Divine revelation which
have created large communities have always issued from circles
of this kind. The meaning and capacity for development of the
religious movement which arose in this way were always dependent
upon the power and depth of the stimulus which had been im-
parted by such a naive revelation, and, on the other hand, upon
the energy of the religious conviction which gave to this stimulus
a divine and absolute authority. Of course, it cannot be claimed
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 45
that such movements are always characterized by a deep inward
energy. But where this is the case simplicity is manifestly superior
to speculation, for it produces a driving force and imparts a deep
spiritual experience without which no religious movement can
live. Inevitably, as the movement develops, the early naive vital
religious content always fuses with all the highest religious forces
of the intellectual culture of the day ; apart from this fusion faith
would be broken by the impact of the cultural environment.
From the second century onwards this kind of fusion took place
in the history of Christianity. The fact that the connection between
faith and thought increased as time went on was a sure sign that
the new faith contained a deep religious power, which not only
did not break down when it came into touch with intellectual
culture, but rather became more fruitful and developed still
further. The Christian origins, however, reveal the popular char-
acter and outlook of all naive religion. This is the reason why
the new faith bore no trace of the much-discussed “senility” of
the Imperial period. Jesus Himself was a man of the people, and
His Gospel bears clear traces of the simple peasant and artisan
conditions of Galilee. It is only the poor and the humble who
easily understand His Gospel ; it is difficult for the rich and for
the religious leaders because they do not feel their need. In their
wisdom they cannot see the wood for the trees, and their hearts
are attached to too many other things to be able to offer an un-
conditional surrender; yet “with God all things are possible”;
even a rich man can be saved, and even a scribe may not be far
from the Kingdom of God.
The first disciples of Jesus came from religious groups of this
humble type, and the first Christian congregation which was
based on faith in the Risen Lord belonged to the same class of
society ; in the case of the latter, however, it is quite evident that
the members possessed a moderate amount of this world’s goods . 17
Even Paul, the man who transformed this faith in Jesus into a
missionary world religion, and who made the worship of Christ
the foundation of a new Church and of a new form of the worship
of God, was essentially both an organizer and a creative, mystical
soul ; in fact, in spite of his intellectual powers his bent was mainly
contemplative. In any case, his whole outlook was entirely inde-
pendent of the spirit of purely scientific inquiry, balanced criticism,
and the higher world culture of the epoch. He was “an unliterary
person in the unliterary class of the Imperial period, but as a
spiritually gifted man he rose out of his class and regarded the
17 See p. 170.
46 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
surrounding world of contemporary culture with a supreme sense
of power. All his scattered attempts at systematization reveal the
limitation of his powers ; the secret of his greatness lay in the
realm of formless religion”.
Similarly, the whole of the Early Christian literature was
popular in character; it was propagated in secret, and was
characterized by all the peculiarities of a popular tradition.
Written in the vernacular, and at all points adapted to the need
and the imagination of the people, for a long time it was neither
noticed nor influenced by the educated classes. Its legendary
character too, which was combined with a good and sound
tradition, reveals the peculiarity of a popular tradition. After the
creative outburst which produced the Gospels, the Pauline epistles
and the Johannine literature — itself coming very near to the
mystery wisdom of the educated classes— the standard of Early
Christian literature sank to a very low level, revealing the
poverty-stricken condition of a merely popular literature. With
the Apologists, however, Christian literature began its upward
development Into the literary upper classes, into their world of
speech and thought. On their part, however, the Apologists
emphasize the fact that the Christians are simple and ignorant
people, and out of that, in the style of the Cynics, they make a
captatio benevolentiae ; this shows very plainly that the appeal of
Christianity to the lower classes had nothing to do with a “class”
movement, or with a Chiliastic Socialism. Poverty and simplicity
are the foundation of truth; but an artificial and polished age
neither sees nor believes this fact ; Rousseau brought this out very
clearly with reference to “natural” truth . 18
Indirect Connection between
Christianity and Social History
It may, indeed, be asserted that the whole great religious crisis
of the ancient world was itself a result of the social struggles of
the period, and that obviously it was the collapse of the national
states in the East and in the West which paved the way for this
whole process. We may also conclude that the disastrous effect
of the great social conflicts which lasted for centuries, and the
indescribable misery which they caused, opened the minds of
men to thoughts of religious redemption. Further, the renuncia-
18 This point of view is strongly emphasized by Overbeck: Ueber die Anfdngeder
patristischen Literatur , Hist . Zpitsckrift, 1882 , pp. 417-472, and Deissmam :
Bibelstudien , 1895, JVette Bibelstudien , 1897 , Das Neue Testament und die SchrifU
denkmaler der romischen Kaiser zeit (Jahrbitch des Freien deutschen Hochstiftes , 1905) .
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 47
tion of individual activity in social matters, and submission to the
world domination of the Empire, drove the individual into his
own inner life, and forced him to concentrate his energies on the
effort to elevate private and personal morality ; it also gave social
ideals a transcendent turn; meanwhile both individuals, and
groups composed of individuals on a voluntary basis, found
comfort in religious exaltation as a compensation for the hopeless-
ness of the temporal outlook. The failure of so many great plans
owing to the pettiness and selfishness of the masses, and the
criminal, unbridled licence of their leaders, aroused a sense of
sin and weakness, and the violent changes in the destinies of men,
combined with the decline of political systems which seemed to
have an almost religious character and which seemed to have
been built for eternity, aroused the desire for eternal values in a
higher sphere 19
These struggles, however, had little in common with the
modern struggles for freedom, whether of an enslaved peasantry
or of the “wage-slaves” of the modern proletariat. It was the
destruction of the ancient Polls > however, and the extinction of
ancient freedom in a bureaucratic sovereign state, involving the
destruction of many treasured ideals, and a great deal of oppres-
sion, which more and more caused men’s thoughts to turn with
longing towards more spiritual aims. Both in the East and in the
West this was certainly the case. Social distinctions ceased to have
any meaning for the different classes when they found an interior
union on the basis of religion. Indeed, it is absolutely certain that
the great religious crisis which marked the close of the ancient
world was a result of vast social crises, in which it had become
plain that the social ideal could not be realized by human thought
and effort ; then men were willing to submit to the order estab-
lished by the Roman Empire ; henceforth the conduct of external
affairs was left to the rulers, while men sought and cultivated
individual and spiritual freedom. This applies to the later develop-
ment of Platonism and Stoicism; it applies to countless new
religious movements, and in particular it applies to the establish-
ment of Christianity as well as to the preparation for it within
Judaism. Although, in the main, it was the upper classes who were
specially open to these influences, the lower classes also were in-
fluenced by the uprooting of institutions, by uncertainty about
the ancient faith, and by the ethical and religious teaching of the
mystagogues, and thus their latent energies sought passionately
for new religious life. In the upper classes the ground was prepared
• 18 See p.171.
48 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
to receive a new spiritual and universal human view of the
universe; in the lower classes the soil was ready to receive the
seed of a new spiritual and universal cult.
At the same time, however, the influence of these social and
historical developments was only indirect. Only those who see in
all spiritual movements merely the influence of social movements,
and especially those who imagine that all religion is merely the
reflection of social conditions in transcendental terms, will see in
them a direct cause of the religious crisis. In reality, however, all
impartial religious research reveals the fact that, to some extent
at least, religious thought is independent; it has its own inner
dialectic and its own power of development; it is therefore
precisely during these periods of a total bankruptcy of human
hope and effort that it is able to step in and fill the vacant space
with its own ideas and its own sentiment.
This dialectic developed independently amid the criticism of
the Greek period of Enlightenment, the new speculative mono-
theistic movements which it provoked in reply, as well as amid
the syncretistic Oriental religions which were divorced from their
own environment. When it was fully developed it caused the
desire for ethical and religious renewal to increase in depth and
urgency under the Empire. Then, as the religious idea gained a
firmer foothold within human life, it produced a great variety of
independent results, which led increasingly to a movement away
from materialism and awakened a longing for the purely mystical
and religious values of life. The real achievement of Christianity
in the ancient world was undoubtedly the concentration and
co-ordination of all these efforts and aspirations. In this, however,
it was only continuing the mighty religious process which had
already begun, by giving it a new centre in a genuine, strong, and
popular religious movement, with a new system of worship and
a new revelation of God.
This result, however, was due only indirectly to the course of
social development ; its most genuine and essential elements were
simply the result of its own religious thought. This comes out very
clearly in the new hope offered by Christianity ; it does not offer
simply a transformed social ideal, expressed in transcendental
terms, the promise of a world in which equality, freedom, pain-
lessness, and satisfaction shall reign, effected by a Divine and
miraculous intervention when human effort has proved unable to
achieve this end 20 ; the Christian ideal means rather the entire
renunciation of the material social ideal of all political and
20 See p. 171.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 49
economic values, and the turning towards the religious treasures of
peace of heart, love of humanity, fellowship with God, which are
open to all because they are not subject to any difficulties of
leadership or organization. This means an entire transformation
of values ; there is here no idea of calling in Divine power to
establish an organization which men are unable to effect in their
own strength. Manifestly this was the case in Stoicism and in the
“Saviour-religions 59 ; this, however, is also the meaning of the
Christian hope of the “Kingdom of God 95 . The whole conception
of Eudaemonism, or the fundamental ethical principle of happi-
ness, which implies that moral excellence and political and
economic well-being coincide, has been altered. Riickert’s lines
might well serve as a motto for the new age which was beginning :
Pluck happiness
And give to each a share ;
To me give bliss
And let who will
Have happiness.
Bliss itself is conceived increasingly as the state of the future
life, and thus it becomes increasingly possible to do without
earthly happiness. The value of the present life was further
depreciated by the idea that man is by nature totally corrupt,
and also that this life is inextricably bound by the chains of
material things.
Thus, by its own inherent energy the religious idea itself
neutralized secular distinctions; and with this depreciation of
political and economic values the barriers between races and
classes and peoples were also removed. It was then, of course,
quite natural that this religious idea should develop a great
attraction for all who were suffering from these restrictions. It
was also quite natural that Christianity should primarily seek
and find its disciples among those who were feeling the weight of
this oppression most acutely. Further, we must not forget the
simple fact that a popular movement, which, from the very
outset, was steeped in the ideas and feelings of the lower classes,
naturally was only able to spread amongst them, and that it
found difficulty in gaining an entry into the upper classes of
Society ; thus for a long time, in the main, it found most acceptance
among the lower orders ; in its apologetic, therefore, it turned this
necessity into a virtue. From the beginning, however, attempts
were made to reach like-minded souls in the upper classes, of
whom there were very many, and in the end these efforts were
vol. 1. n
5 o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
most successful. Another quite obvious point, which was very-
important, is this : a religion which sets its adherents in absolute
opposition to the State religion, and to the social and civic
customs with which it is connected, can only now and again,
quite exceptionally, win its adherents among those circles which,
by their wealth and education, are most closely connected with
these institutions. It was for the same reason that the Austrian
Los-von-Rom movement, for example, was most successful among
the lower classes; they were less closely bound up with the
dominant religious system. In so far as this was the case, it is
obvious that the religious movement was strongly, though in-
directly, influenced by the social situation. The religious com-
munity has to do something for its members beyond the mere
preaching of salvation ; it has to try to provide men with shelter
and assistance during the period of their earthly struggle. Thus
the influence of the social situation becomes direct as soon as the
Christian community is able to give help on these lines. But the
more the Christian community becomes a society within a
society, or a state within the State, the more strongly it becomes
conscious of the fact that it is bound up with concrete social
problems, and it then turns its attention and its power of organ-
ization to these matters. All this, however, is simply the result of
the new religious idea, it is not its starting-point.
If this is so, however, it is a great mistake to treat all the ideas
which underlie the preaching of Jesus as though they were
primarily connected with the “Social” problem. The message of
Jesus is obviously purely religious; it issues directly from a very
definite idea of God, and of the Divine Will in relation to man.
To Jesus the whole meaning of life is religious ; His life and His
teaching are wholly determined by His thought of God. At the
same time we must also remember that late Judaism shared the
prevalent religious tendency of the ancient world ; that is to say,
here also political and social disintegration had shaken men’s
faith in finite ideals, and had caused them to look with longing
towards the horizon of the infinite . 21 Once this is realized, how-
ever, it is quite permissible to study the connection between the
sociological problem and these religious ideals; we may then
inquire how the relation between the individual and Society in
general is shaped from this religious standpoint, and how the
sociological result which follows every fresh revelation of truth is
affected by this religious idea. This certainly brings us up sharply
against some very important points; it is essential to note that
al Cf. Bousset: Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zntaller.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 51
their peculiar significance is due precisely to the fact that they
have been produced by the religious idea . 22
The Gospel Ethic
Amidst all the uncertainties of tradition the fundamental idea
underlying the preaching of Jesus is easy to discern. It deals with
the proclamation of the great final Judgment of the coming of
the “Kingdom of God 59 , by which is meant that state of life in
which God will have supreme control, when His Will will be done
on earth, as it is now being done only in heaven; in this “King-
dom 55 sin, suffering, and pain will have been overcome, and the
true spiritual values, combined with single-eyed devotion to the
Will of God, will shine out in the glory that is their due. That is
why sinful men who acknowledge their sinfulness, and those who
have learned the lessons of submission and humility through their
experience of sorrow and poverty, will enter the Kingdom of God
before the self-satisfied and the righteous as well as before the
rich and the great ones of the earth.
Further, the message of Jesus also deals with the formation of
the community based on the Hope of the Kingdom, which, in the
meantime, possesses both the pledge of the Kingdom and the
preparation for its coming in Jesus Himself. This community is to
be founded by the missionary efforts of the narrower circle of
the immediate disciples and followers of Jesus; they therefore are
entrusted with the special duties which devolve upon the heralds
of the Kingdom. With their help the Kingdom is preached
everywhere. Jesus does not speculate about the nature of the
Kingdom of God; it simply includes all ethical and religious
ideals, among which freedom from suffering is certainly one
aspect of the message. All attempts at a closer analysis are in-
complete and uncertain. All that can be said about “times and
seasons 95 is that the Kingdom is to come “soon” ; the actual date
Jesus left entirely in the Hands of God, and from the study of the
tradition it is quite impossible to discover with any certainty what
He taught about the manner of its coming. The Kingdom of God
means the rule of God upon earth, to be followed, later on, by
the end of the world and the Judgment. These events, however,
are so closely connected, and preparation for the coming Kingdom
22 For the following cf. Holtzmann : Neutestamentliche Theologie; Wernle: Anfange;
and the Reichgotteshoffnung, 1909; Wrede: Predigt jfesu vom Reiche Gottes ( Vorirage
und Studien , 1907) ; above all Julicher: Gleichnisreden , //, 1899; A . Hamack:
Spruche und Reden Jesu. Die zweite Quelle des Matthaus und Lukas , 190 7; so far as the
ethic of the Gospel is concerned, here also I adhere to the point of view expressed
in Grmdprobleme der Ethik t Z.J. TheoL u . Kirche , 1902.
52 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
is also so vital for the Final Judgment, ‘that nothing definite is
taught about either the difference or the relationship between
these two conceptions. All the emphasis is laid on preparing for
the Kingdom of God, and this preparation is so thorough that the
community which is “looking out for the Kingdom of God” can
already in anticipation be described as the “Kingdom of God”.
There is no desire to organize a special group of chosen souls ; the
way that leads to salvation, and the rock upon which men ought
to build, is to be made plain to as many as possible.
This demand for “preparation” includes both the ethic of Jesus
and the idea of God which determines His ethic ; at this point it
is unnecessary to discuss the question of the element of novelty in
His teaching contrasted with His Jewish environment.
His fundamental moral demand, briefly expressed, is the
sanctification of the individual in all his moral activity for the
sake of God, or that “purity of heart” which, when the Kingdom
has actually come, will enable a man to “see God”. The moral
commandments themselves are conceived from the point of view
of ordinary practice and general human interest, but they are
illuminated by the fact that as they are obeyed with devotion and
inner simplicity, all that is done takes place under the Eye of God,
which penetrates every disguise and tests human motives to the
utmost; thus the will is given to God in absolute obedience, in
order that it may attain the real and true life, its real spiritual
eternal value in the sight of God. Hence the ethic of the Gospel
is marked by emphasis on purity of intention and a greatly
intensified reverence for all moral commands, without any
allowance for conflicting motives or for expediency. Above all, it
connects this moral conduct with its supreme object — a personal
relation with God and the supreme value of the soul, “for what
is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul?”
We need not here discuss the question of the connection of these
ideas with the Jewish Law, with the ordinary popular ideas of
ethical behaviour, and with the popular expectations of reward
and merit, and also with the various critical outbreaks against
ideas of this kind. The main point is this : that this ethical ideal
is absolutely steeped in a twofold idea— (i) the religious idea of
the Presence of God, which is conceived as a searching and pene-
trating gaze and as a “fascination” which draws man to Himself;
and (2) with the thought of the infinite and eternal value of the
soul to be attained through self-renunciation for the sake of God.
These ideas are more easily understood by the soul which is
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 53
bowed down with a sense of sin and guilt than by a “righteous”
man. The poor man, who is not so deeply involved in the cares
of this world as the rich man, makes these truths his own more
speedily. These are truths which open a way of deliverance to the
poor and the despised. For the poor and humble there is comfort
in the knowledge that God does not judge of a man’s worth by
the commonly accepted standards of ordinary life.
This completes the summary of the chief characteristics of the
Gospel ethic. We might search it in vain for a detailed list of
particular moral requirements. The moral demands seemed so
entirely natural to Jewish life that, quite naturally, they were
also regarded as universally relevant. Here the Gospel ethic is
neither complete nor systematic. But it would be wrong to infer
from this that the Gospel ethic is purely subjective, and that it
merely amounts to a demand for an independent exercise of
conscience. For “reward in heaven” is spoken of quite simply and
naturally, although there is no idea of any tangible “reward”;
the real reward is the Kingdom of God itself, the goal of a religious
consummation. It is also clear that among the various demands
which the general consciousness recognizes as valid, distinctions
are made which force moral instruction to concentrate on certain
definite points, so that the ethic of the Gospel deals not merely
with the will and its intention, or with the inner constraint of
conscience, but also with certain definite concrete demands.
This concrete and extremely characteristic tendency of the
Gospel ethic is due to the fact that the Idea of God is set in the
very centre of all moral purpose. This is the God who tries the
heart and the reins, whose eyes pierce the inmost depths of the
heart, revealing the most subtle self-deception; the God who is
also a living and active Will, as the Prophets of old proclaimed
Him. This is the God who draws into the fulfilment of His own
creative Will the soul that is utterly surrendered to Him. All the
virtues, therefore, are thoroughly systematized from the funda-
mental religious point of view : union with the Will and the Being
of God, and co-operation with the work of God. In the sight of
God the highest position is that of those in whom consecrated
self-sacrifice and self-surrender to God through obedience have
been expressed most clearly. So far as character formation is
concerned the virtues of complete sincerity and integrity alone
make it possible for the soul to attain union with the All-Knowing
and All-Holy; this, of course, involves thoroughly conscientious
behaviour in daily life. Stress is also laid on humility, which helps
man to realize his littlehess in the presence of God, and therefore
54 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
forbids too much being made of men’s sins against each other,
and on self-denial, which demands the sacrifice of love of self,
love of pleasure and comfort, and of all human preferences, to the
severity of the moral claims involved in union with God. Christ
requires men to be indifferent to material happiness and to
money, to practise sexual self-restraint, to have a mind that values
the unseen and eternal more than the seen and temporal, and
finally to develop a personality which in its central aim is
thoroughly harmonious and unified.
Here the Gospel is extremely radical. It is not ascetic, but it is
very severe ; no doubt about the possibility of its practical realiza-
tion is permitted ; yet this austerity in no way destroys the inno-
cent joy of fife. The same applies to the question of relationship
with other people; all moral achievements of this kind are re-
garded from the point of view of participation in the work of God,
of the revelation within us of the true spirit of God Himself, which
we have received from Him, the awakening of the sense of the
true knowledge of God through the revelation of His Being in our
own behaviour. Since God is active, creative Love, who maketh
His sun to rise upon the evil and upon the good, so men who are
consecrated to God ought to manifest their love to friend and foe,
to the good and to the bad, overcoming hostility and defiance
by a generous love which will break down all barriers and awaken
love in return. All this implies the need for gentleness, readiness
to forgive others, willingness to serve, warmth of feeling in per-
sonal relations, magnanimity, modesty, and forbearance. Here, too,
there is no asceticism, which aims at self-depreciation for the sake
of the mortification of the “natural man” in the abstract (which
is, properly speaking, required as a provision for the future), but
only a severity which makes almost superhuman demands, and
an idealism which is certain that it can break down the dull
resistance of the masses and of utilitarian reason. Other social
relations are not mentioned. All the other virtues, however, the
demand for self-control and self-cultivation, and also the claim
for equity and justice, and things of that kind, pale in importance
before these main demands, and they are only touched upon
now and then, and in a casual manner. It is expected that they
will naturally fall into line with the main tendency, which lies
in the double commandment to love God, that is, to give oneself
to Him in obedience to His commands, and to love one’s neigh-
bour, that is, that in intercourse with him we are to reveal to him
or to arouse in him the Divine spirit of Love . 23
23 Seep. 171.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
55
Sociological Characteristics of the Gospel Ethic
These ideas determine the form of the sociological structure.
Its first outstanding characteristic is an unlimited, unqualified
individualism. The standard of this individualism is wholly self-
contained, determined simply by its own sense of that which will
further its consecration to God. It is bound to go all lengths in
obedience to the demands of the Gospel. Its basis and its justifica-
tion lie in the fact that man is called to fellowship with God, or,
as it is here expressed, to be the child of God, and in the eternal
value of the soul which this filial relation confers. The individual
as a child of God may regard himself as infinitely precious, but
he reaches this goal only through self-abnegation in unconditional
obedience to the Holy Will of God.
It is clear that an individualism of this kind is entirely radical,
and that it transcends all natural barriers and differences, through
the ideal of the religious value of the soul. It is also clear that such
an individualism is only possible at all upon this religious basis.
It is only fellowship with God which gives value to the individual,
and it is only in common relationship with God, in a realm of
supernatural values, that natural differences disappear. Where
this kind of individualism prevails all earthly differences are
swallowed up in the Divine power and love which reduce all
other distinctions to nothing. Henceforth the only distinctions
which remain are those which characterize creative personalities
of infinite worth, each one of whom must trade with his “pound”
to the best of his ability, and in no way whatever may make
compromise with the differences and interests of the world.
Whether, indeed, in practice this ideal will be generally accepted
is another question. Sin and the world oppose a heavy weight of
obstruction, and in face of stern conflict with a hostile world it is
true that “many are called and few are chosen”. In face of these
difficulties, however, which His absolute religious individualism
encounters, Jesus comforts Himself with the knowledge that
things that are impossible with men are possible with God. From
the very outset this was not an ideal for the masses. Faced by the
extreme tension of these demands, we must also remember that
they were formulated in the expectation of the final Judgment of
the imminent End of the World. However little these demands
may have been due to this expectation, we must realize that their
radicalism and their indifference towards questions of practic-
ability can only be understood from this point of view. The feeling
is that the sphere in which they are to be realized will ilot last
56 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
long and has no intrinsic value of its own. This absolute religious
individualism, however, which removes all distinctions by con-
centrating entirely upon differences in character in individuals,
each of whom has his own value, also contains within itself a
strong idea of fellowship ; this idea is based just as clearly upon
the specifically religious fundamental idea. This cannot be
explained simply by pointing out that the altruistic command-
ments are bound up with the commands to consecrate the self to
God — commands which have to be obeyed to the uttermost limits
in self-purification and self-denial. In the last resort the idea of
fellowship springs from the fact that those who are being purified
for the sake of God meet in Him; and since the dominating
thought of God is not that of a peaceful happiness into which
souls are gathered but that of a creative will, so those who are
united in God must be inspired by the Will and the Spirit of God,
and must actively fulfil the loving Will of God. Therefore for the
children of God there is no law and no pressure, no war and no
conflict, but only an urgent love and a conquest of evil by good,
demands which the Sermon on the Mount illustrates by giving
extreme instances. Since, as we have seen, absolute individualism
springs from the religious idea of pure-hearted self-surrender to
Him who seeks men's souls and to the Fatherly Will which calls
them to the vocation of being His children, so from this same
fundamental idea this absolute individualism leads to just as
absolute a fellowship of love among those who are united in
God ; from this springs an active realization of the love of God
even towards strangers and enemies, because only through the
revelation of absolute love c^n a true understanding of God be
awakened and the way opened to Him. Everywhere this is the
background and meaning of the Gospel emphasis on brotherhood
and the love of one’s neighbour. It is not simply kindness and
gentleness in general, but the union of those who are united in God,
and the revelation and awakening of the understanding of the
real values of life through the manifestation of love, the melting
down of earthly smallness and worldliness in the Fire of the
Divine Love, which nothing worldly can resist. But this fellowship
only extends as far as the religious message is known. Where this
is so it is absolute; where it is absent it seeks and woos; but the
way to salvation is narrow, and few there be that find it, and
amongst these few those who suffer enter most easily. There is no
thought here of a humanitarian ideal in itself. When the effort
to establish this fellowship fails the Gospel can only exhort to
suffering and patience, [[until the Judgment will set things right.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 57
Here again, in order to understand Jesus 5 exhortations, we have
to remember that this restoration is not thought of as taking place
after a long life in the world, but after a short period of time.
Thus out of an absolute individualism there arises a universal-
ism which is equally absolute. Both these aspects of the Gospel are
based entirely upon religion ; their support is the thought of the
Holy Divine Will of Love, and they mutually aid each other quite
logically; we cannot here pursue any farther the particular
question of the extent to which Jesus really abrogated the Jewish
position of privilege. The interesting point for us is simply the
fact that absolute individualism and universalism spring directly
out of the religious idea, and that this fact has, sociologically, a
double aspect. Both require each other. For individualism only
becomes absolute through the ethical surrender of the individual
to God, and being filled with God ; and on the other hand, in
possession of the Absolute, individual differences merge into an
unlimited love whose prototype is the Father-God Himself, to
whom souls are drawn and in whom they are united. This lesson
must be learnt by all who desire to save their souls at the Judg-
ment and have their part in the Kingdom of God ; and those who
do this are His brothers and sisters, and therefore the firstborn of
the coming Kingdom of God . 24
We can here set aside the question of the significance for this
individual preparation for the return of Christ which the certainty
of the forgiveness of sins and of the gracious Will of God already
has in the preaching of Jesus in producing this spirit of courage
and joyfulness. Sociologically, its significance is primarily only
that of a strengthening of motive and of. a triumph over un-
’ avoidable hindrances and obscurities which arise in the effort to
realize the ideal. Secondly, however, it tinges both the individual-
ism and the universalism with a feeling which is closely connected
with its religious root. Thus the emphasis falls not only on the
individual’s sense of his dignity in being united with God, but also
on his sinful weakness and creaturely infirmity, the sense of the
need for trust in God and the help of God, and the confidence in
His mercy as the source of all that is good. The spirit of univer-
salism also becomes more than a mere unity in God and common
relationship to God — it becomes a unity in a common sense of
need, through mutual readiness to forgive, through a common
sense of sin and of the fight against evil. The individual, in spite
of his sense of personal worth, still remains an “unprofitable
servant 55 , needing forgiveness, and in expectation of a settlement
• See p. 172.
58 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of accounts with God must in brotherly love destroy all human
debit accounts, all calculations between man and man. The Idea
of God bears both the features of a fatherly loving-kindness which
calls all to the highest dignity of life, and also of a perfection which
maintains souls always in humility, and yet ever encourages them
through the forgiveness of sins. It does not, therefore, represent
itself as an inevitable idea, but as authority and revelation. The
Hebrew God of Will, in His aloofness from mankind, only makes
Himself known in living revelation in the Law and in the Pro-
phets, and in the authority with which Jesus interprets both. In
this way the idea of authority is introduced into the sociological
structure. The whole system of thought which has just been
described arises out of faith in an authority of this kind, and the
securing of this authority as its essential source will be a per-
manent task of the whole structure. At all these points this
structure differs from that system (to which otherwise it is so
closely related) which will be described later; the religious-
ethical and sociological thought of the later Stoics.
Otherwise this sociological structure is a completely free
fellowship of thought and knowledge. Its members mingle every-
where with the children of this world, and continue to take part
in the national form of worship. They only prepare themselves
inwardly for the coming of the Kingdom, coupled with their right
behaviour towards one another. Jesus did not organize a Church.
He simply asked for helpers who would spread the message by
preaching; these assistants were to be men who would leave all
and sacrifice everything for His sake and for the Cause. That is
one of the main differences between His work and that of the
Essenes, with which it is often compared by people who seem to
think that it is the special task of the historian to be cleverer than
his sources, and to consider everything more probable and more
possible than what they say. This is also the reason why the
sociological thought of the Gospel has been able to react again
and again against ecclesiastical tyranny.
The Gospel Ethic and General Social Values
From this point of view it is easy to forecast what form the
Christian attitude will take towards social problems which
belong to an entirely different group of interests . 25 These problems
belong to the world and will perish with the world. As the world
itself is a mixture of good and evil, so the whole social order,
25 On this point cf. Jacoby: Neutestamentliche Ethik, 1899 , in which, however, the
significance for the future of the Kingdom of God is distinctly underestimated.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 59
with its pleasure and its labour, has its good points. On the other
hand, it is also full of danger; its bad side is manifest in its ten-
dency to distract the hearts of men from the one thing needful.
Jesus does not preach asceticism ; in His teaching there is no trace
of contempt for the life of the senses or for pleasure as such, nor
does He glorify poverty for its own sake. But He teaches quite
plainly that food and work are only of value in so far as they are
necessary to life ; otherwise they have no ethical value. This point
of view is characteristic of popular Oriental feeling with its
depreciation of the claims of a higher civilization; it is also the
expression of that religious radicalism which cannot see any
ethical value at all in anything which is not directly connected
with religion.
The ethic of Jesus is heroic rather than ascetic. The heroic
aspect is softened only by the gentler elements of trust in the
Fatherly Love of God and faith in the forgiveness of sins, but not
by any compromise with the claims of the life of the world and
the “nature of things”. From this point of view we can see plainly
the attitude of Jesus towards the State, Society, labour, and the
possession of property. There is no thought of the State at all.
Jewish nationalism and all its expectations are ignored entirely,
even though Israel appears as the germ of the new world that is
to be. In the thought of Jesus the Kingdom of God is the rule of
God and not the rule of the Jewish people. Jesus makes it per-
fectly plain that the Roman Empire exists, and has a right to
exist, because God permits it ; but while He admits this He also
adds the injunction : “Render to God the things that are God’s.”
Jesus’ outlook on economic questions is very simple. All that
men have to do is to live by the day, trusting their Heavenly
Father to provide “for the morrow; for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself”. He also lays down that self-
sacrificing love which shares all it has with others (this, of course,
assumes the necessity of labour and of earning a living) is the
highest proof of true piety. The renunciation of all possessions,
however, is the condition of closer membership in the actual
missionary group of His disciples . 26
Thus the only economic doctrine of the Gospel is this: God
allows everyone to earn his living by means of work ; if distress
should arise, then love can help ; wealth, however, must be feared
on account of its danger for the health of the soul. This is the
reason why it is so difficult to reconcile this point of view with the
vast social problem created by the tension between increase in
* 26 See p, 174.
60 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
population and the difficulty of supplying the bare necessities of
life. The love which religion requires also proved the simplest
way of overcoming distress. Further, all questions of property are
considered solely from the standpoint of the consumer, whose
practice must remain modest if it is to remain healthy, and who
fills up all the bare spaces created by poverty with the exercise
of a thoughtful generosity.
It is, however, undeniable that the message of Jesus, in its
sympathy with poverty and suffering, does apply more particu-
larly to the poor. The reason for this, however, lies in the assump-
tion, which is here taken for granted, that the Word finds a
speedier entrance into the good ground of an “honest and good
heart” among the poor. Another reason is that Divine Goodness
and Justice are manifested in the fact that it is precisely those
who are apparently most backward, and the disinherited, who
find it easier to enter into the way of salvation than those who,
in the eyes of the world, are more privileged. In this bias towards
the poor there may possibly be an attempt to vindicate Divine
Providence: for want and distress, which men cannot under-
stand, in the sight of God prove to be a way to salvation. Yet there
is here no idea of compensating poverty with some reward in the
future life, but rather the thought of the privilege of suffering for
the sake of the knowledge of God and of the true values of life.
The message of Jesus, however, is not restricted to the poor,
but it is addressed to everyone. When Naumann, overwhelmed
with all these reflections and under the direct influence of contact
with Palestine itself, exclaims : “His heart was full of love to the
poor, hatred of oppression, and joy in the development of the
‘little ones 5 , only the way in which He obeyed the dictates of
His Heart was more remote from the humane activity of our own
day than we thought”, we can scarcely agree with him. In the
teaching of Jesus there is no trace of a struggle against oppression;
the only conflict which He waged was that against false religious
leaders, the “blind leaders of the blind” ; while love of the poor
and joy in the awakening of the “little ones” of Society cannot be
interpreted as the desire to improve their material condition, but
rather as the active expression of His own principle and funda-
mental feeling of love, combined with the sense that there was the
most receptive soil for His message. But all the problems and
difficulties connected with pauperism, such as the question as to
whether grave ethical dangers and serious hindrances to spiritual
development are not actually caused by poverty, and the lack
%1 Naumann; Asia, p, ntf.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 61
of mental and material progress, lie beyond the horizon of the
Gospel.
On the question of the family, however, Jesus 5 teaching is more
intimate and detailed in character. Starting from the ethical
conception of the family, in the pure and chaste sense of later
Judaism, Jesus drew upon it for symbols of the highest attributes
of God, for the name of the final religious goal, for the original
description of the earliest group of His disciples, and for material
for most of His parables ; indeed, the idea of the family may be
regarded as one of the most fundamental features of His feeling
for human life. The value which each individual possesses within
the monogamous family (the sense of being “a person 55 ), and the
intimacy of the family bond, are in fact also inwardly connected
with the religious individualism and universalism of His teaching,
and the stress He lays on the qualities of the heart is connected
with the undogmatic intuitive character of His faith in God.
Hence His insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond,
and on the limitation of sex intercourse to married people, even
for men. The new sociological idea had a most direct and pro-
found influence upon the vital centre of all social life, upon the
family. On the other hand, Jesus reminds His hearers that sex
will not exist at all in the Kingdom of Heaven ; that situations
may arise in which it may be necessary to renounce the joys of
family life in response to some imperious spiritual demand, and
that the missionary vocation may require men to “have made
themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake 55 . 28
It is therefore clear that the message of Jesus is not a programme
of social reform. It is rather the summons to prepare for the
coming of the Kingdom of God ; this preparation, however, is to
take place quietly within the framework of the present world-
order, in a purely religious fellowship of love, with an earnest
endeavour to conquer self and cultivate the Christian virtues.
Even the Kingdom of God itself is not (for its part at least) the
new social order founded by God. It creates a new order upon
earth, but it is an order which is not concerned with the State,
with Society, or with the family at all. How this will work out in
detail is God’s affair; man’s duty is simply to prepare for it.
It is, of course, true that Jesus promises that the poor and the
suffering shall have their tears wiped away and all their desires
satisfied ; but after all this is only natural in a message addressed
to the poor ; it is not the chief point. The centre of His Message
was the glory of God’s final victory, and the conquest of demons.
28 Cf. Marianne Weber: Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtsentwickelung, 1907, pp. 180 ff.
62 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
We can, of course, foresee that as soon as a message of this kind
creates a permanent community a social order will inevitably
arise out of this programme, and that the sociological structure,
which at first was conceived solely in religious terms, will be
transformed into a social organization within life as a whole.
The command to love one another at least is bound to influence
a small and intimate community on the economic side as well,
which will lead it to make an attempt to realize this idea in
practical life, that is, so long as external hindrances do not oppose
it and make it impossible. The spirit of love, indeed, will be
exercised in all kinds of conceivable circumstances, but so long
as the command to love one another is not checked by the pressure
of adverse conditions it feels impelled to obey the inward impulse
to organize the life of its own community in obedience to the
economic principles which this commandment contains.
During the time of Jesus’ life on earth there was no sign of an
organized community. A visible community was only formed after
His death. Then, however, the Primitive Church at once tried to
put His teaching on love into practice. The new social order,
however, was confined to the Christian community; it was not
a popular programme of social reform in general. Within the
Church itself, however, which was small, and whose members all
belonged to the same social class, the only communism which
was possible was one which differed from all other forms of com-
munism and can only be described as the religious Communism
of Love. That is to say, it was a communism which regarded the
pooling of possessions as a proof of love and of the religious spirit
of sacrifice. It was a communism composed solely of consumers, a
communism based upon the assumption that its members will
continue to earn their living by private enterprise, in order to
be able to practise generosity and sacrifice. Above all, it has no
theory of equality at all, whether it be the absolute equality of
sharing possessions, or the relative equality of the contribution of
the various members to the life of the whole according to merit
and service. All that matters is that all the members shall sacrifice
something and that they all have to live ; how this is carried out
in practice does not matter. There was also no attempt at any
organization on business lines such as a joint group of producers
would have desired. Finally, of course, there was no hostility to
that which forms the real hindrance to a true communism —
opposition to the institution of the family, which is so closely
connected with all private enterprise. On the other hand, it seems
likely that its members were unwilling to swear in a court of law,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 63
and that they avoided lawsuits and participation in official life.
This should be our interpretation of the well-known account of
primitive Christian Communism in the Book of the Acts ; it seems
highly probable that this description fits the facts. The fact that
it could not last, or at least that it could not be extended when
the Church went out to win the world for Christ, is not difficult
to understand. We have only to think of its internal organization,
which would, of course, be possible in a small group composed of
like-minded people, but which was much too loosely knit and
insecurely based for world- wide propaganda. The fact that it was
merged immediately in the wider work, without even a struggle
for the principle, is only a further sign that this communism was
a by-product of Christianity and not a fundamental idea. The
fundamental idea was solely that of the salvation of souls. *9
One of the permanent results of the teaching of Jesus, however,
was this idea of a Communism of Love. In later ages, during times
of special need, there arose again and again the tendency to
repeat the same, or at least similar, experiments within the
Church, in other forms. The theoretical expositions of the later
Fathers of the Church proclaim it in many ways as the genuine
fundamental doctrine of Christianity ; free and common to all like
light, air, and earth, like the fact that we all come from God and
to Him we all return ; earthly possessions should be for the use of
all, through the love which shares and keeps nothing back. When,
at a later date, men again tried to construct a purely abstract
theory out of Jesus 5 exhortations on social questions — that is, when
men tried to reduce the absolute readiness of Love to sacrifice,
into a theory — this always led quite logically to a fresh attempt
to realize the Communism of Love. The monastic system, the
mediaeval communistic movements, the Anabaptists, modern
fanatics and idealists, have all followed this clue. This idea
contains a revolutionary element, although it has no desire for
revolution. 30 The Church herself has felt and recognized the
logical force of this idea. We shall see that when she evolved her
own doctrine of Natural Law she eluded the logical result of this
29 Cf. PJleiderer ; Urchristentum , 1902 , /, 22 f.
30 This line of development is followed by Nathanael Schmidt; The Prophet of
Nazareth (New York, 1905) ; I only know this book, however, from a very
interesting account of it in a review by Wernle; TheoL Lit. x 9°7> 603$.
Worthy of note also is the remark that everywhere this imitation of Christ runs
parallel with the lessening of emphasis upon the dogma of the 'God-Man.
In fact the latter dogma removes the ethic of Jesus out of the region of com-
parison altogether, pointing rather to obedience to the Church, which Christ
founded as the organ of His Will.
64 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
idea by admitting its existence in the Primitive State and denying
its applicability to contemporary life. So far as the present day
was concerned, however, even from the time of Paul, the Church
developed in a very different direction and, indeed, along the
lines of socially conservative theory . 31
The dominant element of all this system of thought, however,
was, on the face of it, not this social result, but the ideal concep-
tion of the sociological structure in general which arose out of
the religious idea. This conception was destined for a vast historic
mission, whose importance is not affected by the conclusions drawn
from it whether they be socially conservative or revolutionary.
Once this idea has developed to its full extent it will inevitably
alter the fundamental sociological theory wherever the relation
of man with man is concerned. It will affect social and political
questions, and in one way or another it will breathe a peculiar
spirit into the existing world-order. Also from the very outset it
is plain that the effort to settle and adjust political and social
problems will be far from easy or simple.
Before this idea could become influential, however, the religious-
sociological idea itself needed to be much more stable and fully
developed than it was in the Gospel, where it was dimly perceived
as a sublime and stern, but loosely defined, ideal about the serious-
ness of preparation for the coming of the Kingdom of God, and
which later on no Christian religious organization has ever been
able to take over and carry forward, as it was first preached in the
Gospel in heroic greatness and childlike freedom.
Parallel Developments within Stoicism
The question is simply this: Was this idea peculiar to the
Christian Gospel, or were there similar movements in existence at
the same time? It is quite clear that similar ideas were present
among the later Stoics, especially those of Rome, and a glance in
that direction will be of great assistance, not merely in the analysis
of the idea, but also for our understanding of its further his torical
development. The doctrine of the Stoics was, primarily, a religious-
metaphysical doctrine, which arose out of the religious process of
transformation which took place in late antiquity, and here also
we have to do with a general sociological structure which has
arisen out of a centre of religious thought. Its philosophical mono-
theism also led to a religious relation with humanity which was
clearly opposed to the popular conception of religion in the
ancient world. Its leading idea is the conception of God as of the
31 See p.175. •
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 65
“First Cause 55 or the universal Law of Nature* which is pervaded
by the Logos or the ordering force ; the universe is controlled by
this Divine principle of order, which appoints individuals to their
several positions within nature and within Society : in man this
becomes the Law of Reason which knows God and is therefore
one with God. Thus the Law of Nature (an idea which was des-
tined to play an extraordinary part in Christian theory) requires,
on the one hand, conformity with the harmonious course of
Nature, and the share of the individual within the social system,
and, on the other hand, a spirit of inner elevation above all these
considerations, and the moral and religious freedom of the dignity
of reason which is united with God, and is therefore far above
being disturbed by any concrete external happenings in the world
of time and sense. It is the duty of the will to learn to discern this
Law of Nature, and through this knowledge to achieve the control
of the external desires of sense, and also the inward dignity and
purity of harmony between the will of man and the ordering of
Providence, and thus through knowledge to attain the personality
which is hidden in God. All this leads to a theory of individualism
expressed in terms of the idea of religious and ethical personality,
and also to its inevitably correlated idea of an equally (logical)
universalism, which recognizes that all men are equally called
to the same knowledge of God and which, in their common
surrender to the Divine Law of Nature, unites them by an
ethical bond.
Social Influence of Stoicism
The whole conception forms a complete analogy with the
sociological thought of Christianity. It also produced a similar
effect upon social problems. Here also this is most easily discerned
at the most vulnerable point in social life: the question of the
family and of sex ethics. The moral freedom and equality of
women, children, and slaves are proclaimed on the basis of the
fact that they also are all equally called to the knowledge of God :
and, since marriage is a relationship between moral personalities,
from the husband also there is demanded a complete personal
surrender to the wife, and, together with this, chastity both before
and after marriage. This also led to a new attitude towards
slavery and to fresh ideas on the question of emancipation, while
poor relief and the beginnings of public works of charity were
organized. Indeed, a social ideal was erected which demanded
moral freedom and equality for all, and a communistic freedom
from pain or sorrow, in which men might live without force, or
VOL. I. * E
66 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
war, or law, or a civil order, and in the perfection of the moral
temper. Of course, there was no idea of seeing these ideals put into
practice. The Stoics regarded them as part of the Golden Age in
the past and irrevocably lost ; only a new era in world-history
could usher in a fresh beginning. In strange contrast with the
fundamental idea of a pantheistic harmony the actualization of
the ideal is not simply expected to be realized by the will of
humanity, but it is regarded as being hindered by weakness and
sin ; humanity is below the normal level, and at the present time
it is only possible for individuals to rise above it and in a private
group. None the less, a distinct effort was made, wherever it was
possible, to fit these humanitarian ideas into the existing system
of laws. The Stoics’ conception of the world immanence of
Natural Law (the Law of Nature), the new interpretation of the
popular religion, the fact that the Stoics belonged to the upper
and ruling class, made it possible for them to have a reforming
influence upon the world which was impossible for Christian
Dualism with its exclusiveness. The Roman jurists of the Imperial
period were steeped in the ideas of the Stoics, which they tried
to unite with positive Law. The legal system has, therefore, to a
great extent, carried those principles into practice, and, above all,
the theory of the jurists undertook to guide the positive legal
enactments back to the general Divine Law of Nature, and out
of the Natural Law, as a special application, the idea of Natural
Law was founded, on which all ordinances of positive law are
ultimately based, and in accordance with which the State and
Society develop by conforming as far as possible. Cicero stands
out with special significance in connection with this subject.
Conceptions of the richest significance for the future have been
created out of this idea of Natural Law. The communistic Primitive
State, corresponding to the ideal or to the Law of Nature, and
the positive law of the State and of Society which at least rela-
tively corresponds to that ideal— -these were conceptions which
later on were to render the most important services to Christian
theology.
Stoicism and Christianity
The close connection between these ideas and those of Christ-
ianity is obvious, especially when, as among the Roman Stoics,
and particularly in Seneca and Epictetus, the Divine Universal
Law assumes the character of a kindly Providence and religious
feeling develops into the sense of personal fellowship with God.
On the sociological side, in particular, the inferences which are
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 67
drawn from this faith in God are very similar to those of Jesus.
Thus it is easy to understand how students of the ethic of Stoicism
believed they had found in Christianity the philosophical religion
they were seeking, while Christians, on the contrary, thought
they had found among them some ideas borrowed from the
Bible, or a point of support in general natural knowledge. In
Epictetus, however, the traces of Christian influence are less
evident. In the case of Seneca the Stoic doctrine of the govern-
ment of the world and the Theodicy is combined with the dualistic
psychology of Plato and the belief in the growth in the similarity
of reason to God. In both, observation of actual life softens the
Stoic rigorism and the Stoic self-righteousness through fellow-
feeling with the infirmities and sins of men.
In spite of all this, however, the differences between Stoicism
and Christianity are also very evident. In spite of the Theism of
Stoicism the elements of primitive and underlying Pantheism re-
appear continually. This Pantheism denies (or ignores) the reality
of the Will of God which is opposed to the world and to sin, which
leads to the conflict with evil and to the formation of a community ;
this leads very easily to a change of meaning in its main ideas —
the moral laws of nature may become utilitarian laws of a secular
and temporary kind, and the affinity between man and God may
be turned into an affinity with Nature.
Finally, the fact that these conceptions can bear one meaning
only from this aspect also shuts out every other new religious
formation from the popular religion ; especially noticeable is their
lack of any proclamation of a coming Kingdom of God or of
world renewal. Instead of that their attention was directed
towards a Golden Age which has disappeared for ever, which
could not maintain itself for long even in a new world era ; the
unity and beauty of a world conceived in the pantheistic sense are
not too deeply prejudiced by human weakness. Above all, how-
ever, this faith is essentially that of the upper classes, who, in spite
of all their concentration on the desire for spiritual “goods” in
virtue, are still bound up with all the existing institutions : in the
Stoic ideal, therefore, the hope of the future seems to be con-
nected with the selection of particular individuals for intensive
cultivation and moral knowledge. It fostered the aristocratic
self-sufficient spirit of a ruling class which has been recently
enlightened and ethically deepened. Christianity, on the contrary,
was a movement of the lower classes, who are able to hope for and
expect something quite fresh, and who, in their Myths and their
Hero, have at their disposal energies of a very different kind which
68 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
can exert a proper influence by mass-psychology. Stoicism repre-
sents the religious and ethical response to the kingdom of this
world, and the ethical preservation and reform of the existing
social order ; Christianity stands for a spiritual revolution, for the
creation of a new type of community and of a new future from the
lower ranks of society.
The difference between Stoicism and the Pauline and ecclesias-
tical doctrines was certainly far greater. For Paulinism, with its
doctrine of sin and redemption, and its offer of the help of love
and grace through the marvellous powers of Christ-Mysticism, set
ideas in motion which were quite foreign to the doctrine of the
Stoics, and which were able to build up a community which gave
every promise of being permanent. When the Christian com-
munity became independent and began to penetrate into the
upper classes, more and more it began to weave the ideas of
Stoicism into its own ethic and sociology ; the Christian Church
did this when it felt the necessity for placing its new and unique
treasure upon a basis of general scientific knowledge . 32
Emergence of a New Ideal of Humanity
When we gather up all these impressions and look at the
phenomena presented by the Gospel, Stoicism, and by the other
religious phenomena of late antiquity of a similar nature (which
research must yet illuminate further for us), the main thing we
notice is the transformation of life-values and the emergence of a
new ideal of humanity, arising out of the destruction of the
militaristic and polytheistic nationalist and conquering states.
The emphasis on the independence of personality in individuals
and the universal idea of humanity is due to Monotheism. The
ideal of a humanity based on spiritual freedom and fellowship,
in which tyranny, law, war, and force are unknown, was due to
the development of a purified and deepened faith in God, which
arose over against the polytheistic cults which sanctioned the
existing social order with its basis of force. Although these new
ideas were very similar, they gained acceptance in very different
ways and their course of development was very varied. Finally,
however, the underlying unity asserted itself and a new socio-
logical and socio-political ideal arose. This ideal, which was the
result of all these efforts and aspirations, maintained its intensity
and independence over against the purely secular institutions
which had arisen out of the struggle for existence and their legal
modifications, even after they had lost their polytheistic sanction.
88 See p.175.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 69
Both these ideals — on the one hand, that of equality and union of
all men through the possession of the Divine Reason, and, on the
other, that of the elevation of the souls of men and their fusion in
the Love of God — represent an ideal of humanity which is based
upon purely religious ideas, which is separated by a deep gulf
from the old naturalistic ideals or from the ideals which only limit
and modify natural instincts ; and yet this ideal feels constrained
to make repeated attempts to bridge this gulf. In their idealism
both Christianity and Stoicism reduce the value of the natural
basis of life, and both are concerned with the attempt to restore
its significance. Thus in both a rich Ethos is working its way up,
full of difficulties and tensions, which has remained an abiding
possession of the European type of humanity, but which also is
always in permanent conflict with the realistic demands of the
natural instincts, with the needs of material existence, and with
political and legal authority. In increasing measure, however, the
leading part in this development was taken by the organization
which grew out of the Gospel . 323
2. PAUL
The Pauline Ethic
As in all other particulars, so also in the question with which
we are especially concerned in this book, the organization of a
world-wide Church, independent of Judaism, founded on the
worship of Christ and going out into the world to win the world
to Him, meant a very material change in the sphere of thought.
The fundamental happening, the emergence of the mystical faith
in the Exalted and Risen Lord, whose Presence fills the Church,
and the redemption and deliverance of those who believe in Him
and are rooted in Him which this involved, can be taken for
granted 33 ; we are here dealing only with the sociological and
social results of this process. These results are certainly con-
siderable.
32a On this point see Weinel: Stellung des Urchristentums, pp. 34 ff*, 41. Similarly,
only from the opposite point of view, Jodi describes the Platonist, Stoic, Neo-
platonist, and Christian ethic as metaphysical (that is, religious and mono-
theistic) ; everything else he includes under the head of empirical ethics in
accord with nature.
33 Cf. Wrede: Paulus, 1303; JiiUcher: Jesus und Paulus, igoy; Wernle: Anf tinge.
To my friend Deissmann I owe the opinion that the central happening in
Primitive Christianity was the rise of a Christ-cult out of faith in Christ, and
that only then there arose a new religious community because there was
already a new cult. Here I only state the sociological consequences.
7 o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
The loosely knit group of Christian believers, waiting in Jeru-
salem “for the promise of the Father” and preparing for the
coming of the Kingdom of God, has undergone a great trans-
formation. Through its faith in Jesus as the Risen Lord, through
the identification of Jesus with the Messiah and (in close connec-
tion with that) with the universal redeeming Divine principle,
through the new worship of Christ and its mystical idea of
Redemption, through Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the
means of becoming one with the present Exalted Christ, it has
become an independent religious community, which, in ideal at
least, is strictly exclusive and bound together in unity. It is a new
cult. The religious community is the Body of Christ, into which
men are incorporated through Baptism, and through which they
are fed and nourished by the Supper of the Lord. The historical
problems which are connected with this development, as, for
instance, the extent to which the example of the synagogue or the
influence of the mystery cults may have been operative, may
likewise be taken for granted 331 ; the fundamental point is the
growth of an independent religious community possessing the
essential ideas of the Gospel and equipped with its powers, which
then develops its own dialectic over against the synagogue and
mystery cults. At the same time the main elements of the Gospel
ethic are preserved, but as the ethics of a new religious com-
munity they receive a new shade of meaning. Purity of heart
becomes sanctification, and the believer who is planted in Christ
through Baptism develops a spirit of great hostility to the world,
which, however, may still include everything which is “just, pure,
lovely, of good report”, everything in which there is “any virtue
or any praise”. Love of one’s neighbour becomes brotherly love
and the principle of love in general, in praise of which Paul sang
his famous hymn. With the emphasis on the Church the principle
of love seems to come very much to the fore, and in the Gospel
of John love constitutes the whole content of the Christian ethic.
This, however, is a false impression; this love rests upon a religious
individualistic foundation, and religious individualism is and
remains the root idea.
On the other hand, the sociological structure, as can be well
understood, experiences greater changes. The very general idea
of individuality, and the very free and wavering idea of fellow-
ship which characterized the Gospel, have been intensified and
33a Eor the former, cf. K. Rieker: Stoat und Kirche in Festschrift fur Emil Friedberg,
1908; for the latter A. Dieterich: Eine Mithrasliturgie , 1903. All these questions are
still very obscure.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 71
appreciably narrowed. In the Pneuma-Ghrist, pervading all
things and identical with the Spirit of God, the sociological idea
receives an incalculably efficient presentation for worship of its
point of reference as well as a closer dogmatic organic connection
among the social relations themselves. The infinite worth of the
individual is now related not merely to the process of self-sanctifi-
cation in obedience to the fatherly Will of God, but to Christ, in
whom the believer lives and moves. Christ imparts His own life,
mystically, to those who trust Him : it is He who works through
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, forming the true higher life in
the believer; Christ, indeed, in His exalted pneumatic Being, is
none other than the redeeming Spirit of God Himself, who over-
comes the demons, the law, and sin. Filial relationship with God,
which was the inclusive content of the absolute religious individu-
alism of the Gospel, becomes the state of being “in Christ”. Along
the same lines the fellowship of the children of God in brotherly
love becomes brotherhood not in God but in Christ ; in the general
union of all believers through life in the actual mystical life-
substance of Christ they become members of the Body of Christ.
Further, the universalism which revealed love as the Divine
attitude towards the world, and which was aroused by this
revelation, remains the same within the Church ; it is expressed in
missionary effort for the conversion of souls; the aim of this
missionary work is to draw in the whole world, which is lost
without Christ, into redeeming participation in the death and
resurrection of the Pneuma-Christ, before the Advent of Christ
and the Final Judgment; this process of conversion is brought
about by a much more complicated process than merely by
proclaiming that love is the attitude of God towards man. This
is only natural, since here we are dealing no more with a message
to one’s fellow countrymen who share the same presuppositions
as was the case with Jesus, and no longer simply with the Will of
God and the Kingdom of God, but with the doctrine of salvation
through Christ.
With this concrete setting, and with the practical development
of the fundamental sociological idea which is included in it and
results from it, a further important peculiarity emerges, which,
indeed, is an integral part of the Gospel, and to which Jesus
alluded now and again. It only became significant, however,
when a definite group for worship was being formed in which
the members were mutually dependent upon one another. This
idea is the peculiar conception of equality and inequality which
belongs to the Christian religious-sociological idea. Every system
72 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of that kind which is both individualistic and universal naturally
con tains , in some way or another, the idea of equality, and places
all individuals upon the level of an equal right to the highest and
ultimate life-values, or at least of a common vocation to and
destiny for these values. This seems to belong to the idea of an
absolute value in general. At this point, however, we immediately
perceive the peculiar effect of the religious starting-point upon
the whole sociological idea. Since Christian individualism is only
founded and completed in God, and since Christian universalism
is based solely on the all-embracing love of God which leads to
the love of one’s neighbour, so this idea of equality is definitely
limited to the religious sphere. It is an equality which exists
purely in the Presence of God, and in Him, based solely on the
religious relation to God as the centre of the whole. At first, it is
true, this equality is in no way an equality of mankind in its claim
on God, but it is an equality in which all men feel that they “have
sinned and come short of the glory of God”, a negative equality
over against the infinite holiness of God. When the idea of an
equal sense of the need of all for redemption through Christ
becomes the ruling idea of the missionary message, then this first
and most important characteristic of equality stands out clearly :
in the presence of a common sinfulness and need all human
differences disappear in the Presence of God. The levelling process
starts from an equal unworthiness and not from equal claim on
God. This “negative” equality is, however, only the basis for the
surrender to that salvation through grace which is given in
Christ, the Church and its Sacraments, which mediates absolute
salvation to all believers. Those, however, who share in the
Absolute and the Divine are by this very fact equal in their
possession of the Absolute, since here there is no “more” and no
“less”. This equality of grace is, however, always a peculiar kind
of equality. It is not based on a common claim or right of nature,
but on the impartation of the Divine Love through grace which,
wherever it gives itself at all, can only give itself as a whole, and
which of itself alone, apart from all external social institutions,
imparts equality in principle, in spite of all human differences in
rank, talent, or ethical achievement. It is thus an equality which
is only expressed in the common participation of all in common
worship. The Supper of the Lord is at the same time the festival
of the brotherhood. Even slaves can lead in public worship.
Quite naturally and purely inwardly equality is imparted through
the worship of Christ, and it needs no other assurance than the
participation of all in the religious gift of salvation. For this gift
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 73
is the One and infinite Love of God which can never be exhausted
however much it is shared, which can never be lessened by being
imparted, and which must always give itself to others as some-
thing which is essentially a unity and a whole . 34 Its external
influence, its organization and distribution, consists therefore
solely in a common worship which knows no differences in the
sight of God, and in love which knows no superiority in the
feeling of one’s own unworthiness, and which shares everything
with the feeling that one has first received everything.
One extraordinarily important point in relation to the idea of
equality, however, still remains an open question. All are equal
in distance from God, and all are equal before God and in God
through grace. But have all men the same destiny and the same
rights to be redeemed out of this equality of unworthiness and
need into the equality of the possession of grace? Further, is the
transition from the one kind of equality to the other destined for
all alike? And, if it is not achieved, does the reason for this lie
solely in the will and guilt of man, or is it founded in the Will and
Being of God? This is the most important point in the whole idea
of equality, and in the Pauline Gospel a characteristic uncertainty
creeps in which is of the greatest importance for the whole future
development of the idea. It is this element of uncertainty which
has given rise to the great and famous problems of predestination
on the one hand, and of the universal Divine Will of Love on the
other. These questions have not merely produced extremely
difficult theological problems; they have also become basic
coefficients of sociological and therefore of social thought which
have lasted for centuries. We are here dealing not simply with an
accidental Pauline doctrine which, through the placing of the
Pauline letters on the Canon of Scripture, became destined,
historically, to be part of the Christian world of thought. Rather,
the Pauline doctrine itself is only the working out of the element
of will which is contained in the whole Divine thought of the
Gospel, which was always specially strongly emphasized in the
Jewish idea of God and which gave it the authority of an infinite
omnipotence which transcended all that was creaturely. With all
His holy and loving fatherly Will, He still remains that Will whose
holiness is posited by His own Will, and whose Love is an act of
fathomless mercy. This, however, is not merely an accidental
element of the Semitic idea of God, which has been retained in
34 Cf. Simmel: Die Religion {Die Gesellschaft , Frankfurt , Ed. II), p, 47. This small
work contains much that is fine, but also much that is arbitrary upon the
sociology of religion.
74 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the tea chin g of Jesus and of Paul, and has not yet been completely
absorbed in the moral law and into universal love. One only needs
to think of the further history of the idea and of its philosophical
development from Augustine to Descartes in order to notice that
it contains within itself an essential and fundamental religious
and metaphysical problem, which is bound to recur in every
sociological system of thought which results from religious ideas.
Are holiness and love the norm for God Himself? Or do they only
have value through His inscrutable Will? Or, to express it in
another way : Are laws of thought and values valid in themselves,
or because of the will that posits them? Is the universally valid
valid because it is universal? Or does its universality result from
its being posited by a will which is not subject to universal
validity? These are the problems which lie beneath all theories
of perception and of metaphysics, and which result from every
attempt to think through the idea of God in a deeper way from
the dialectic of religious thought . 35 Paul indeed knows nothing
of these far-reaching ideas; in this particular, as in so many
others, his thinking is instinctive and intuitive ; but in spite of his
helpless mode of argument, which clings closely to the rabbinic
method of exposition, his religious genius finds a solution which
corresponds to the whole. God’s goodness is grace and fathomless
mercy, equally in creation and in redemption. Therefore there
can be no claim of the creature for an equal share for all in
salvation ; it is God’s own affair to call one and not to call another,
to leave some longer in error than others. In this the predestin-
arian Will of God is expressed. But while this will sets before itself
the goal of goodness and of grace, the unequal distribution of the
calling will presumably relate only to the distribution of destinies
in relation with the history of salvation, it will only mean an
“earlier” or a “later”, a longer or shorter period of being given
over to error and sin; finally, all will be gathered home, and God
will be all in all. This is how in his own mind he accounts for the
destiny of his people, for the apparent rejection of Israel.
It is a way out of the problem ; whether it is a solution of the
problem or not does not concern us now. Here our interest is only
in the extraordinary significance of these ideas for the sociology of
Christian thought, and for the idea of equality contained therein.
The idea of predestination cuts the nerve of the absolute and
abstract idea of equality, the equal vocation of all to the ultimate
values, the right of all to the highest goal. In spite of the equality
35 Cf. Kahl: Die Lehre vom Primal des Willens bei Augustin , Duns Scotus und Descartes,
1886, and my article on Predestination in the Christliche Welt, 1907,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 75
of all in their sinful unworthiness and in their possession of grace,
however, the real equality in itself, the equal claim of all to an
equal share in the highest life-value through equal working out
of vocation and destiny, is invalidated. Even if in the end the
final aim of the loving Will of God for all men is realized, there
still remains the fact of the inscrutable Will of God distributing
to individuals very differently along the way to this aim — making
things easier for one and harder for another, holding one soul at
a distance for a long time and bringing another swiftly to the goal.
In spite of the illumination of this world with an absolute religious
ethical value, there is still an element of the irrational in the
participation in this absolute value, and this element must be
referred back to the inscrutable Will of God. This has the following
effect upon the sociological idea: that there does not exist an
unlimited equal claim on salvation or the Absolute, to be realized
by all in the same way, and that one must be satisfied with
equality of distance from God and equality of love to God,
wherever the latter has taken root. All the rest must be left in
the Hands of God.
From the time of Paul, to a greater or less degree, these ideas
have been operative all through Christendom, and it is clear in
what striking contrast the Christian idea of equality stands out
against all other ideas of equality which emerge in the cultural
life of Europe. Above all, it is the contrast with all equality-ideas
of a rationalistic or Natural Law order which, on the ground of
the common validity of reason, make the claim that reason
belongs to all and therewith that all equally share in the value of
reason. This presupposes that precisely on account of the universal
validity of reason it can be completely realized In each individual.
It is, however, also not difficult to understand that Christianity,
along with all the radical equalizing of men in the sight of God
and with all the penetration of this idea in the whole life of the
soul, and in all personal relations of men to one another, is yet
at the same time very cautious towards any attempt to carry over
this equality into the sphere of secular relationships and institu-
tions, which have nothing to do with the real religious basis of
this equality. In the great differentiations of national and social
life it will be inclined in the first instance to regard them as
something foreign to the religious interest, and here also it will
tend, in so far as they do not rest openly upon a sinful foundation,
to see in them Divine ordinances which are to be accepted without
questioning their basis. This tendency will be doubly great at a
time when, as in primitive Christianity, religious propaganda
76 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
and work absorb all their energies, and in a situation in which all
political and social conditions are fixed and unchangeable for the
general consciousness as they were in the Roman Empire, in a
missionary activity where every appearance of political illegality
and danger must be carefully avoided.
Christianity will always instinctively fight shy of all ideas of
equality, in spite of its close relationship with them, and it will
at this point always have its main difficulty in its interpretation
of the conception of the righteousness of God which it will be
forced to characterize as the equal destiny of all to the same end,
and which, on the other hand, it will be unable to maintain. In
this lies its contrast with the rationalist ideal of the Stoics, which
infers or deduces, at least for the Primitive State, the principle of
abstract equality from the possession of reason by all. On the
other hand, however, with its emphasis upon equality in weak-
ness, and of a radical distance of all from God, as also with its
reference of all salvation to the gracious Will of God, it is far
removed from every theoretically aristocratic way of thinking,
from the basic doctrine of the rule and privileged position of the
few on the ground of natural talent and historic selection. The
sociological theory springing from the religious idea is indeed
entirely different in its fundamental structure from that which
results from rationalism or from naturalism, however often it
meets the others in both directions. Si duo faciunt idem , non
est idem.
Here we come to a further important point, where once more
the doctrines of Paul, drawing upon the basic ideas of the Gospel,
just on account of their formulation are particularly influential
and characteristic. I refer to the question of the inequalities of
human life in ordinary affairs — the fact that men are limited partly
by the amount of general capacity they possess and by their
natural disposition, partly by the social and political situation.
From what we have already seen it is clear that there is no idea
of removing these inequalities. At the same time, however, they
are not treated merely in a negative fashion, but they are taken up
positively into the sociological basic idea of the worth of person-
ality and of the unconditioned fellowship of love, and they are
turned into sources of peculiar ethical value. The earthly in-
equality is worked into the religious equality as a material from
which the religious equality receives a special stimulus for its
activity. In this connection Paul uses the well-known ancient
metaphor of the organism and the relation between its nobler
and its baser parts, but in so doing he means something much
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 77
more than a mere “organic 55 social idea. He makes the inequalities
corresponding to the religious basic idea into the occasion and
material for the activity of love. The mutual service of all to each
other with the gifts which have been given to them by God, the
overcoming of evil with good, and the strengthening of the good
in the fight against evil, self-giving, and humility towards one
another, also ruling and administration, the care of the strong
for the weak, and the lifting up of the weak by the strong — all
this causes a mutual give-and-take, in which the fundamentally
Christian virtues of self-surrender and humility, of love and
responsibility for others, are manifested. So the whole closely
knit inward connection of a system, which is organically united
and all-penetrating, and at all points conditioning itself, here
finds expression. Thus every kind of work and capacity, even the
least, is honoured, and all those who possess greatness or wealth
find that it involves a duty towards others. All the humility re-
quired does not mean any depreciation of personality, neither
does the exercise of active love, of care for others and authority
over them, involve any superiority, because in this sociological
system it is never merely a question of men dealing with men as
men, but it means rather that it is always the Divine in the one
dealing with the Divine in the other. For in these services all men
are # only God’s stewards, and what they do is not done by men
but by God or by Christ. That this point of view contains a
certain quietism cannot be denied ; nowhere is there any talk of
improving living conditions, but only of enduring them and
making them inwardly fruitful. At the same time, mingled with
this quietism there is the expectation of the End of the world,
and from this point of view as a permanent arrangement there is
the possibility of a more far-reaching reform. Also there remains
in such a system, alongside of all adjustment and surrender, the
aim which, by using the differences between men in order to
reach equality of inward spiritual values (so that at first the
revolutionary power of an idea of equality is hidden), is at least
working towards the goal; this cannot fail to have a strong effect
upon self-consciousness even before the goal is reached. In actual
fact, in Christ there is already “neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor
free, Barbarian nor Scythian, male nor female 55 . At the same time,
the enthusiasm is still great enough to make this inner equality
sufficient, and to believe in good faith in the possibility of estab-
lishing this kind of equality. The realistic question, whether there
are not grades and kinds of poverty which make it impossible to
rise to this kind of equality, and whether external uplifting is not
78 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
necessary, is still remote from this conviction of the omnipotence
of good-will.
Out of all this, however, there has now been created an extra-
ordinarily important sociological type. This is the type of Christian
patriarchalism founded upon the religious recognition of and the
religious overcoming of earthly inequality . 353 There was a certain
preparation for this in late Judaism, but it receives its special
colour from the warmth of the Christian idea of love, through the
inclusion of all in the Body of Christ. One has only to compare the
Book of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach with the Epistles
of Paul to note both the similarities and the differences. It only
attained its full development certainly in the Middle Ages, and
then acquired its specific character with which we shall deal later
on. At this stage it is hindered from working itself out fully by the
complicated character and far-reaching atomizing of the life of
later antiquity — above all, by the urban character of the local
churches and the relative insignificance of the social differences
within them. But its basic idea of the willing acceptance of given
inequalities, and of making them fruitful for the ethical values of
personal relationships, is given. All action is the service of God
and is a responsible office, authority as well as obedience. As
stewards of God the great must care for the small, and as servants
of God the little ones must submit to those who bear authority ;
and, since in so doing both meet in the service of God, inner
religious equality is affirmed and the ethical possession is enlarged
by the exercise of the tender virtues of responsibility for and of
trustful surrender to each other. It is undeniable that this ideal is
perceived dimly by Paul, and only by means of this ideal does he
desire to alter given conditions from within outwards, without
touching their external aspect at all.
Thus the general sociological structure, by means of an internal
process, gradually assumed the form of a compact social system,
with its various grades of authority and subordination, which are
an inherent element in any sociological system . 356
The principle of radical individualism and universalism was
actually unorganized; it simply included personalities who are
all equal; all are alike infinitely precious, and all are included
with the same intensity because the spirit of this principle pene-
S6a This dualistic basis and tendency is excellently described by F. J. Stahl in
Der Ckristliche Staat } pp. 11-13.
85b Cf. the dissertation which has already been mentioned by Simmel; Soziologie
der Ueher- und Unlerordnungs ( Archiv 5 Band XXIV \ xgof) as well as my own treatise
on Politische Ethik und Christentum ? IQ04, *
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 79
trates into the very centre of men’s souls. Since, however, this
system, ;when_it comes to be realized in practice, cannot dwell
merelyin the^ region of those high ideals, it evolved in the Spirit-
Christ an authority which held it together, a settlement of the
main lines of its thought, and a vividly suggestive operative
personal example. There then emerge clearly the natural differ-
ences between the two poles of individualism and universalism,
which bring with them different capacities, positions, and services
into the whole, as well as distinctions which are due to other
causes. These differentiations, however, are closely related to the
religious idea of fellowship itself, inasmuch as they are turned into
means for the development of religious-ethical values. For, on the
one hand, they maintain that solidarity due to a religious motive,
common responsibility, and care for others towards those who
for the time being are in a subordinate position; and, on the
other hand, they maintain resignation, love, and the duty of
obedience as a religious motive towards those who for the time
being are their superiors. Thus there arises a continual movement,
and alongside of it also a spirit which transcends all differences
and all movement in the Divine life in which all share. A socio-
logical type of this kind is only possible upon a religious basis
because here alone is it possible to allow individual differences to
sink into oblivion in a common spirit of devotion to the Divine
Will which produces these differences, and which makes this
community the organ of its aim of unity. Individuals do not enter
the whole simply with a part of their being (as they do in most
other sociological systems), but because they are wholly and
entirely — even with their special characteristics — willed by the
unified Will of God, they also enter into the common life with the
whole of their being, with their own position, and with their
particular characteristics. They are not absorbed into it and lost
in it, but rather they make it into a means of specific ethical
values, a means for the restoration of the whole.
The Pauline Ethic and General Social Values
Thus already we are led from the general religious-sociological
idea to social problems . 350 The sociological idea, while retaining
the external form, desires to transform the whole spiritually from
within. But it is impossible to leave it at that, at a purely inward
change. When the local churches begin to form their own groups
for life and worship they are obliged externally to lay down
350 Here also see Jacoby: Neutestamentliche Ethik and Weinel: Stdlung des
Urchristentum-
8o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
limits towards the life of the State and of the Society around them,
and within their borders, in so far as they have the power to do so,
they must put their own social situation in order. That process took
place even in the time of Paul, and in this respect also he indi-
cated important lines of future development. Paul’s ideas were
quite distinct from the ideals of the Gospel, and, at least for the
Early Church, they determined the immediate path of duty;
owing to the fact that Paul’s Epistles were placed upon the Canon
of Scripture, his ideas have also had a varied dogmatic effect
upon later ages. The childlikeness, breadth, and height of the
Gospel are already being expressed in the concrete and practical
realm, and austere radicalism has already given way to com-
promise, with the necessity for being on terms of understanding
with the general life of the world. In spite of all attempts at
understanding, however, the modern idea that in order to build
up a world on sound spiritual and moral lines a corresponding
foundation of material and social conditions is needed is still
remote. They are only external adjustments but not inner con-
nections. The ideology of good-will feels itself for more than a
thousand years almighty, completely autonomous, and self-
sufficient. Where the natural basis does not submit and fit into
this theory it is destroyed by renunciation. The positive relation
with social organizations remains merely a search for points of
contact which will offer themselves naturally.
Thus when the Christian Church began to carry its message
into the Roman Empire it proved just as impossible to ignore the
existence of the State as it had proved impossible to apply the
principles of the communism of love to large corporate groups and
associations, which had to be organized and adapted to their
social environment. In reality the Pauline world church, in
opposition to the revolutionary conclusions revealed in the
Apocalypse, did not merely recognize the State as permitted by
God, but prized it as an institution which at least cared for
justice, order, and external morality. In this respect already Paul
drew upon the Stoic doctrine of the moral law which is written
in the heart, and ascribed also to the heathen a knowledge
of goodness which is outwardly expressed in their State and
in their legal system. The Empire wields the sword according
to the Will of God and by the order of God. But together with the
order of the State there is recognized that which is inevitably
bound up with it, the whole order of Society : the distribution
of property, divisions of class and rank, in fact, the whole social
organization. Christians, indeed, are notto make use of the State
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 8t
authorities, 3 ^ and they are advised to keep away from all
trades and callings which are tainted with heathenism, and to
avoid all social life which brings them into contact with heathen
forms of worship. But on the whole the Christians are to respect
the existing regime and to turn it to good account, since their
citizenship is not on earth but in Heaven. They must prove them-
selves good and industrious citizens, and above all each man
must labour to gain his own living, for the sake of general order,
and that he may be able to share with those who have need.
It is evident that the situation has changed. The religious
community is no longer in the simple rural surroundings of
Galilee, with its Oriental freedom from economic needs and its
casual system of justice, but in the urban world of slaves and lesser
citizens with its more complicated domestic economy and a
stricter system of justice . 36 This restriction to town-life naturally
influences the ethical ideas until they adjust themselves to this
situation, and the radical endeavour to apply the Sermon on the
Mount naturally recedes into the background. It is only natural
that the conservative attitude should be applied to the institution
of the family, which is assumed as the basis of the whole of this
ordered life. Marriage is used as the figure of the most important
leading idea of Paul, that of the union of Christ with His Church.
The existing patriarchalism, with the predominance of the
husband, is accepted as the natural order, and submission to it is
demanded as an ethical duty, while at the same time the husband
also is urged most strongly to preserve his purity before marriage,
and monogamous fidelity as well as personal self-giving in love to
wife and child are expected of him. The wife and the child, like
the slave, are regarded as equal to the husband and the freeman
in the religious and moral realm, and this actually, even if not in
the eyes of the law, deepens and spiritualizes the whole of family
life. Questions of mixed marriages are already being treated with
great care and caution, and reveal a great desire to uphold the
ideal of marriage. Even though Paul himself, speaking personally,
cannot hide his own misgivings about the sex-life, and at least
desires it to be kept within very strict limits, in order to avoid
finding the sex instinct too strong a competitor with the
religious interest — all this has nothing to do with the value set on
36d Paul refers Christians who disagree to the judgment of the community or
of arbitrators ; this constitutes the beginning of an independent system of law,
and the position of the Sermon on the Mount (i.e, that all litigation is to be
avoided) is — most characteristically — altogether forgotten. H. Weinel: Stellung
des Urchristentums , pp* 32 and 36 . 36 See p, 176.
VOL. I.
F
82 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the family as a social institution; it is simply the natural ascetic
result of a predominant religious aim. Later, however, it was to
become very strong and powerful, and it was then destined to
place m any hindrances in the way of the nobler result of the
Christian idea of the personalizing, individualizing, and deepening
of the family ideal.
Conservative and Revolutionary Tendencies
within the Church
Thus for many centuries the conservative attitude of Christ-
ianity towards political and social life was decided by this doctrine
of Paul. It is a most remarkable thing that the entirely revolu-
tionary and radical principle of unlimited individualism and uni-
versalism should adopt such a thoroughly conservative attitude
to social questions. In spite of this, however, it actually exercised
a revolutionary influence. For the conservative attitude was not
founded on love and esteem for the existing institutions, but upon
a mixture of contempt, submission, and relative recognition. That
is why, in spite of all its submissiveness, Christianity did destroy
the Roman State by alienating souls from its ideals, and it has a
disintegrating effect upon all undiluted nationalism and upon
every form of exclusively earthly authority. But because its
individualism and its universalism proceed from the religious
idea and are related to religious values, such a conservative
attitude is thoroughly possible.
In reality Christianity seems to influence social life in two ways :
Either, on the one hand, it develops an idealistic anarchism and
the communism of love, which combines radical indifference or
hostility towards the rest of the social order with the effort to
actualize this ideal of love in a small group ; or, on the other hand,
it develops along social-conservative lines into an attitude of
submission to God and His Will, so far as the world is concerned,
combined with a strong independence of an organized community
which manages its own affairs, which, as its range of influence
increases, finds that it cannot ignore secular institutions, but that
it must do its utmost to utilize them for its own purposes. The first
ideal is the source of ever-renewed radical social plans for smaller
or larger groups of people, while the second ideal produces the
conservative principles of patience and suffering within the
world, whose ordinances are permitted by God, whose possibili-
ties Christians use for their own ends, and whose continuance
they endure, because inwardly they are unaffected by them.
The third possibility, that of using the ordinances of Society
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 83
positively, as preliminary phases for the attainment of the highest
religious-ethical goal, lies still entirely beyond the vision of the
Early Church. Not yet does she think of trying to understand
spiritual and ethical values in constant relationship with, and in
dependence upon, the natural basis of life ; neither did this idea
occur to the Middle Ages, nor to the religious-metaphysical ethic
of the ancient world ; the empirical ethic of Aristotle alone takes
these relationships into account.
From this point of view, above all, the whole problem of
economics and of property is regarded essentially from the
standpoint of the consumer, and it is regulated accordingly in the
direction of frugality. The idea that wealth and property are a
means of unlimited power of production, and that they are there-
fore the means of providing a healthy basis of life for an increasing
population, is peculiar to the modern world ; it arose only when
the relationship between ethico-spiritual values and economic
organization was perceived. At times, indeed, these ideas have
gone beyond the ideological extreme and have developed into
historical materialism ; and even to-day the relationship of both
causalities is still a difficult problem. If, however, the dependence
of the ideological superstructure upon economic conditions is less
evident, then the State and the Law seem much less closely
connected with the economic basis of life, and their chief use
seems to be merely that of the preservation of the peace, of public
order and discipline. Since at the same time the State lost its
religious-polytheistic sanctity, it naturally lost also a great deal of
ethical importance, and it came to be regarded by the Christians
only in its most external and superficial aspects. This is why it was
possible for the Pauline churches and for primitive Christianity
to adopt a social conservative attitude, and yet at the same time
to remain inwardly deeply separated from the whole life of
Society"' around them, patiently enduring the conditions in which
they found themselves, and cleverly using them for their own
ends, while at the same time, in contrast with the life of Society,
they build up an entirely new and quite different community life.
The principle which Paulinism here lays down, on the threshold
of the great development of the future, is the duty of the recogni-
tion and use of social phenomena as organizations and institu-
tions — which did not come into existence without God’s per-
mission and which contain an element of good — mingled with a
spirit of inner detachment and independence, since, after all, these
things belong to a perishing world and are everywhere steeped
in paganism. This, however, suggested a positive relationship
84 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
which was capable of further development, and one which, as
will be seen later, was increasingly produced by the Early Church ;
but, however widely the Christian communities might have been
extended, this attitude could never have become a programme of
social reform, nor even possibly of a Christian civilization. When
later on something of that kind did take place, entirely new
circumstances and ideas had produced a new situation.
The socially conservative development of Christian thought
which is proved as an established fact mainly by Paul’s Epistles,
and which then received a lasting authority through the inclusion
of these letters in the Sacred Canon, contains at the same time
and in some degree, however, the radical elements of Christian
thought. These radical elements are directed purely towards
spiritual renewal, the development of religious personality, and
the fellowship of such personalities among themselves ; combined
with these ideas, is an other-worldly goal of ethico-religious per-
fection, which finds in the organizations of this present world
useful points of support ; these are regarded as merely provisional
arrangements which have to be endured, and from which the
Christian holds himself inwardly entirely aloof. Thus for a long
time the conservative and revolutionary elements in Christian
thought were united to and conditioned by each other in a
classic manner, which constituted the general Christian standard.
This turn of mind, moreover, was in no way influenced merely
by the expectation of the End of the World, even though it was
encouraged by it ; it remained on in the ancient world even after
the thought of an imminent Judgment had entirely disappeared ;
indeed, it continued right on into the Middle Ages and into
Protestantism.
At this point, therefore, on the very threshold of the whole
historical development, it is necessary to raise this question:
Does this combination of conservative and radical elements
correspond to the inner essence of Christian thought, or is it an
accidental element due to the personal attitude of Paul himself
and to the needs of the most primitive churches? Is it an essential
characteristic of all the Christian social doctrines which has
developed out of the central thought of Christianity, and thus
already from the very beginning casts a clear light on the develop-
ments of the future? May it be that the two forms of social
influence which have just been indicated, which are apparently
diametrically opposed to each other, are not after all two equally
possible applications existing side by side, but that perhaps they
really belong to each other and are united in the fundamental
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLV CHURCH 85
idea from which they sprang? This seems all the more probable
when we remember that the love-communism of the small
primitive Christian community did not interfere with the world
in which it was set, and also that apocalyptic fanaticism was not
an expression of social or political reform, but of hatred of pagan-
ism and the hope of some miraculous act of God, and that, on the
other hand, Pauline conservatism had no inward interest in the
values and standards of the present world, but that it only endured
and used them as ordained and permitted by God. Although
both these tendencies may at times diverge very widely, they
might perhaps still be united in an inward relationship, and form
a united stream of development 363 for the sake of the great ends
to be realized.
It is my belief that, without danger of a forced construction,
we are right in saying that the Pauline turn of thought in relation
to social matters corresponds to the spirit and meaning of the
Gospel, and that in this respect it presents the classical example
of the union of fundamental ideas right down to the beginning of
the modern era. A religious doctrine like that of Christian mono-
theism, which takes religion out of the sphere of existing conditions
and the existing order and turns it purely into an ethical religion
of redemption, will possess and reveal the radicalism of an
ethical and universal ideal in face of all existing conditions. But,
on the other hand, just because it is a religious faith which
believes that the whole world and its order is being guided by
God, in spite of devils and demons, just because it means sub-
mission to the Will of God who predestinates and allows all
kinds of human differences to exist, it can never be a principle
of revolution. So far it will always have a conservative trait of
adaptation and submission towards the existing social order and
social institutions, the conditions of power and their variations. A
theoretic revolutionary tendency will only be possible in the sphere
of abstract rationalism which, from the point of view of the indi-
vidual and his generally reasonable point of view, restores the
rational element, and only recognizes the Divine element in the
universality of reason, but not in the irrational course of things
which cannot be controlled by the individual. Therefore modern
rationalism alone provides the sphere for a revolutionary prin-
ciple in theory and practice which will construct Society accord-
ing to the claims of reason . 3613
On the other hand, however, that spirit of Christian submission
and adaptation to circumstances will always stop short at the
36a See p. 176. 36b See p. 177.
86 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
borders of the values of the inner life, of the religious-ethical
world of ideals, and of the ecclesiastical organization which
supports these ideals. In actual fact it will exercise a very pro-
found transforming influence, and will venture on the most
searching interference with the social order ; it will do this some-
times by indifference to existing conditions, sometimes by sub-
mitting existing conditions to the only valid test, the test of its
own ideals and of its transcendent values; thus, without any
deliberately revolutionary intent, it will succeed in destroying
and breaking down evil institutions and in inaugurating new
ones . 360 A purely and unconditionally conservative doctrine can
therefore never be produced by it. Its monotheism and universal-
ism, its belief in Redemption and its ethico-personal inwardness,
contain a radicalism and a striving after unity which will
always either ignore all merely temporary conditions or set them
aside, and beyond all national and other forms of unity it will
press forward towards an ideal religious unity which will be
spiritual, inward, and living.
Simple Social Conditions favourable to Christianity
It is, however, clear that Christianity has a distinct leaning
towards comparatively simple conditions of living, in which
immediate contact with God’s gifts in Nature determines the
way of earning a living and thus the possibility of maintaining
life, and keeps vivid the feelings of dependence and gratitude
towards the gifts of God in Nature. It also has a leaning towards
little groups and corporations which are closely bound together
in personal relationships, in which the formal legal and economic
tendency of a dehumanized and abstract organization of the
common life has not yet forced purely personal relationships and
decisions into the sphere of isolated instances. This, however,
is a new element in Christianity which has not yet been inter-
preted by what had gone before, and in itself has nothing to do
with the conservatism of Christianity. It is caused by the fact that
an ethic which is so deeply personal, and which lays so much
stress upon the inward spirit, while it replaces law by love and
trust, is much easier to carry out in these simpler conditions of
life than in a complicated civilization which is founded upon
legal political and economic abstract forms — above all, upon law
and upon impersonal institutions and necessities. This explains
why it was that the Early Church met with a greater response
among the artisan and middle-class group, in which something
360 See p. 178.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 87
remained of that more primitive group-ethic of trust and con-
fidence than among the upper classes. The Pauline churches
were essentially small communities, remote from the great legal
organization of a giant State; it would, indeed, be impossible to
imagine their existence in any other setting. This is also why in
the central period of the Middle Ages, and also in Lutheranism,
an attempt was made to preserve these simpler conditions. This
was due to a socially conservative attitude only in so far as it was
connected with a striving after simpler conditions which, under
some circumstances, happened to coincide with the preservation
of older and less developed conditions. In this instance, however,
this was not due to a spirit of submission to and adaptation to
existing conditions, but to a desire to discover a general situation
in which it would be easier to carry the Gospel ethic into practice
with less compromise. Indeed, much of later monasticism tended
in this direction — not, however, monasticism as a whole; since,
in a small group, in a simple relationship with Nature, in a
personal dealing with all circumstances, and in freedom from
possessions, it actually realized the ideal which all the agitation
of a complicated social order either rendered altogether impossible,
or at least meant that it could only be realized to a very limited
extent. 36d
Forecast of Future Developments
Later history only serves to illustrate this curious blend of
conservative and revolutionary elements which can be discerned
from a close study of St. Paul’s Epistles, in which, however, the
conservative rather than the revolutionary elements are empha-
sized. In reality, in spite of all its conservatism, Christianity
became a principle which contained immense spiritual energies
of a revolutionary nature, which, once its ecclesiastical and
theocratic powers were combined, also led to revolutionary
changes in very concrete matters, in the realm of Law and of
institutions. Christianity shattered the ancient world, both in its
spirit and in its outward form; in the Gregorian revolution it
destroyed the Territorial Church system, and the rights of states
and peoples ; at the Reformation it revolutionized the Church, and
created new politico-ecclesiastical forms ; through all this, how-
ever, Christianity always either tolerated the existing social order,
while inwardly it undermined it, or by its comparative con-
servatism it supported and glorified it. It only became revolu-
tionary in principle when its ideal (which as will be shown
36d See p.178.
88 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
presently had become fused with the Natural Law of the Stoics)
broke through the limits which it had prescribed for its concep-
tion of Natural Law and assimilated its rationalistic results. On
the other hand, it was only conservative in principle when it gave
a religious sanction to the existing order purely for political
reasons, while, for the time, it obscured or discarded its ethical
radicalism.
Characteristically, however, this blend of conservative and
radical elements was based precisely upon that circumstance upon
which so much emphasis has been laid all along — that Christianity
neither sought nor found an inward connection and historical
continuity between the general political, economic, and social
situation and the values of personal religion ; its radical ideology
always insisted either that everything creative must proceed
from within, or that everything depends upon obedience to an
external authority; sometimes, therefore, it ignored and some-
times it rejected the conditions which formed the substructure
of the spiritual and ethical world; in both instances, however,
it tolerated and therefore conserved this lower realm, either
because it had been instituted by God after all, or because it
was necessary for Christianity to accept the conditions sin has
caused.
This being so, social reform took the shape of philanthropy,
which aided individuals and allowed conditions to remain as
they were ; this ideal could, of course, only be carried out success-
fully within a limited sphere and in an economic situation in
which the general conditions were comparatively tolerable . 366
This principle, which allowed existing conditions and the chal-
lenge of the ideal merely to co-exist alongside of one another, or
this combination of the conservative and radical elements in
Christianity, was not overthrown until the time of Calvin, when
modern economic forms of industry and modem political life
were sanctioned in the belief that they would lead to the develop-
ment of a “holy community”, of a Christian social order; Calvin-
ism also realized that spiritual values are conditioned by the
material, external setting within which they are placed. Hence
Calvinism developed a radical policy which affected the general
conditions of political and economic life, and gradually overcame
the old passive Christian conservative attitude ; at the same time,
however, the predestinarian conception of God, which was such
a marked feature of Calvinism, still continued to exercise its
influence in the Pauline sense, upon the idea of the need to
,6e This constitutes the whole difference between charity and a social policy.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 89
recognize and utilize for ethical purposes the various differences
due to natural causes. 36 * The social theories and the social
policies of the modern churches have followed the path opened
up by Calvinism, for the study of modern conditions and of the
modern point of view in theoretical social science, politics, and
economics, has forced them to recognize that the ethico-religious
values of the Christian idea of personality and love are just as
closely bound up with the general assumption of the economic-
legal-political substructure as are all other spiritual and ethical
values in general.
The immense importance which was implicit in the earliest
development of sociological ideas and of a Christian point of
view in social questions, within the earliest church of Gentile
converts, forced us, even at this early stage of the Pauline mission,
to let our eyes travel down the centuries. In so doing we have
anticipated much with which this book will deal; the vast signifi-
cance of this development in history brings out all the more
clearly the contrast between this development and the little
Pauline churches themselves. At that stage they still lacked not
merely the greatness and the importance, but also the full clarity
of the principle, and the solidarity of a body out of which alone
first the clearness of the principle, and its relation to opposing
forces and to its surroundings, could be established. At first they
were still mainly occupied in defining the relation between the
social revolutionary and social conservative tendency, and of the
radical ethic of holiness and love with its heavenly goal, against
the natural claims of social existence ; in settling these problems
they were also busy working out the problem of the development
of the life of the Church itself, for which faith in the mystical
presence of Christ within the Church and of the Spirit “shed
abroad” by Him, was not sufficient for the stability of their life
as a social body.
3. EARLY CATHOLICISM
Church Organization
The sociological idea of the Gospel was based on that faith in
God which arose out of the Jewish Bible and the Jewish national
life, intensified and illuminated by the proclamation of the
Kingdom of God, and on the incarnation of this idea in the
3ef For the moment I will only call attention to the two books by Choisy :
La theocratic d Genbm an temps de Calvin and Uetat chretien calviniste d Genbve au
temps de Thiodore de Bize.
go THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
personality of Jesus Himself. When, however, in accord with its
essential nature, this new faith had severed its connection with
Judaism and Jesus was no longer with His disciples, it then felt
the need for something to take the place of this outward relation-
ship; it needed an independent centre of organization which
would incarnate the idea at any given point of time with refer-
ence to its relation to the actual setting in which it found itself.
Both aspects of the Christian faith — its individualism and its
universalism — needed this independent organization in order that
they might find fresh and vital forms of expression, which would
provide it with an ever new standard and also keep it firmly
anchored to the religious foundation. Perhaps it would be more
true to say that it was only because the Christian community
found a rallying-point of this kind that it was able to develop
and permanently maintain these logical results of its own thought.
This rallying-point was its faith in the Exalted Pneuma-Christ,
whose living presence permeated the whole of life. This conviction
was the driving force and organizing power of the new community ;
it created its only new article of faith, faith in the Christ who is
identical with the Spirit of God.
It created the new cult (which alone made it possible to form
a new religious community at all), which consisted of the worship
of God in Christ, implying the two sacraments: (i) of baptism,
which meant being planted “into Christ” ; and (2) of the Eucha-
rist, in which the believer is fed and nourished by the Exalted
Christ. It created the new ethic, which meant that all believers
in Christ were united into one body against the world ; this ethic
also taught that individual believers must die unto sin and live
unto righteousness, repeating in their own history the dying and
the resurrection of Christ by rising again to a new life in the
spirit — a life of endeavour after personal holiness for' the love of
God, and of brotherly love.
At the same time, however, the development of dogma, cultus,
and ethic was still very free, simple, undefined, and receptive of
new impressions. This fact comes out very clearly in the whole
idea of the Exalted Christ Himself, which, freed from its historical
limitations, is now able to be used very freely to develop all kinds
of new applications and new meanings. Its special influence,
therefore, was manifested in its “enthusiastic” spiritual influence
which produced achievements of religious awakening and devo-
tion, of theological interpretation and understanding of the
Scriptures, of missionary activity and of organizing ability, of
love and sacrifice, of self-conquest and transformation of char-
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 91
acter, which seemed to transcend the ordinary achievements of
humanity in a remarkable way. In the popular miracle-psychology
of the ancient world all these phenomena were regarded as
miracles.
The Pneuma-Christ constitutes the objective presence of the
sociological point of reference. It is, therefore, quite clear why it
was that, from that time forward, the main problems of theology
centred round the question of the interpretation of the Pneuma-
Christ, of His identity with and difference between Himself and
God. Thus the first fundamental doctrine became that of the
Father and the Logos, from which (through a process of develop-
ment into which we cannot enter here) there issued finally the
doctrine of the Trinity. It is, however, also easy to see that this
Pneuma-Christ, and the various spiritual effects which He pro-
duced, could not suffice permanently as the incorporation and
presence of the sociological point of reference. The “enthusiasm”
which it produced led, in some instances, to an hysterical con-
fusion, and also to an inevitable weakening of actual faith in
Christ, which was a grave menace to the new Faith. Further, the
Idea of God which was incorporated in this Christ-mysticism was
also menaced by the competition of externally similar syncretistic
cults and speculations; indeed, it was in still more imminent
danger of being stifled and evaporated since it had only come
into existence itself by means of theological interpretations, which,
in many respects, seemed to be closely related with the ideas of
those cults ; for neither in the Jewish Bible nor in the Gospel
narrative did it possess a sufficiently strong basis for the stability
of its peculiar religious content. From the sociological point of
view in particular, the Christian community felt the need for
establishing the sociological point of reference upon a firmer basis,
and of providing it with a more objective point of view, a more
practical method of definition (and one which would be actually
carried out) with a more coherent lucidity and with a more
logical certainty of interpretation.
It was out of this need that there arose that peculiar form of the
Christian priesthood, the episcopate, with which the new Christian
Bible or the New Testament was closely connected, the emphasis
on a genuine tradition, secured by the bishops, and the develop-
ment of the sacramental idea, which ascribed a miraculous power
to the new ceremonies, and which ordained that the Sacrament
was only valid within a properly constituted Christian community
through the hands of the regular clergy. This constitutes the de-
velopment of Early Catholicism, which, after Pauline Christianity,
92 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
was the second great development of the Christian Faith. We
cannot here enter into the question of the extent to which this
development was affected by the thought and practice of Jewish
and pagan ritual. The chief point is this : that the sociological
situation did actually require some development of that kind, and
that in this main concern, in spite of everything, a certain con-
tinuity can be clearly traced. The episcopate meant that the
endowment with the Spirit was clearly defined within fixed
limits; it formed the channel through which the miraculous
powers, the authority, and the power of celebrating the Sacrament,
could be conveyed to the official ministry which had been called
forth by the needs of the organization ; such an emphasis in fact
was suggested by the actual authority of the Christian tradition
and of its close relation with the original founders of the new
religion. In a concrete way the episcopate was substituted for the
earlier faith in the Exalted Christ and the Spirit ; it is the successor
of Christ and of the Apostles, the Bearer of the Spirit, the exten-
sion or eternalizing of the Incarnation, a visible and tangible
proof of the Divine Truth and Power, the concrete presence of
the sociological point of reference . 37 Accordingly, it also reacts
upon the conception of Christ by transforming the idea of the
incarnation of a Spirit working freely in the hearts of men into
that of Christ as the Great High Priest and celebrant, the source
of all the sacerdotal energies of grace . 38 Throughout the whole
course of this development, however, it is quite clear that the
driving force of the organization and of the development as a
whole was religious ; it was not in any way due to any attempt at
social reorganization or reform. The office of the diaconate,
which was dedicated to works of charity, was made subordinate
to the episcopal office, as a clear token that all Christian philan-
thropy proceeds from the religious idea itself and is at its disposal . 39
37 This is one of the leading ideas in the famous and instructive book by
Loisy: Uevangile et Viglise , igo2.
38 This subject is handled in an extremely interesting manner by Thalhofer:
Handbuch der katkolischen Liturgik 2 , 1894.
39 From the point of view of thought this institution of assistance was from the
first the outflow of the supernatural idea of the Body of Christ or of the Ecclesia ,
which in the Presence of Christ and the Spirit everywhere bears the objective
signs of an institutional body, as Sohm: Kmhenrecht , /, i8q 2 } p. 20, rightly points
out. In a passage quoted by Sohm from De aleatoribus these words occur:
pecuniam fuam adsidente Christo , spectantibus angelis et martyribus praesentibus super
mensam dominicam sparge. This gives the right meaning to the phrase of Harnack :
“In the form of an altar a table served to express at one and the same time the
love of God and the love of our neighbour” ( p . gg). On the office of deacon,
see Uhlhorn , /,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 93
The Episcopal Church of sacrament and tradition has, therefore,
become the second fundamental dogma.
This represents, however, a further extraordinary limitation of
the original sociological idea of absolute religious individualism
and universalism. The religious community is now no longer
bound merely to the worship of Christ, to baptism and the
Supper of the Lord, but to the Church, to tradition, to the
bishop, and to the use of the sacramental means of grace through
the legally appointed bishop. Even in Jesus the original ideal was
not supported solely by a purely independent experience of God,
but by an authoritative tradition and by the force of His own
authority. The episcopate only meant that those forms of author-
ity were transformed into powers which were also capable of
organizing and extending the sociological idea, since both in its
starting-point and in its foundation the Divine idea and the Divine
power are firmly established in the ministry and in the sacraments.
For that very reason this new Christian priesthood constituted a
peculiar phenomenon. It was explicitly stated that its authority
was not based upon the human element in the priest, but upon
the indwelling Divine power which he has received through
tradition and consecration ; only in so far as his actions flow from
this source are they Divine; in so far as they are human their
value is merely incidental or useful from the point of view of
expediency. This Divine element, however, does not belong to
some special priestly order as such, nor is it imparted to each
individual through some wonderful Divine call ; it resides in the
presence of the Spirit of Christ, which, properly speaking, is only
securely “canalized” through ordination and Apostolic Succession.
The institution of the priesthood does not remove the general
religious equality and freedom, the pure community character of
all Christian religious fellowship, and it does not place certain
human beings in a superior position over other human beings ; it is
only the chosen and regular vehicle of the Christ-Spirit, the organ
of the presentation of truth and of redeeming sacramental grace.
In submitting to it one is only submitting to God, and, indeed, not
to special illuminations which are given only to the priest, but to
the general truth and power which come to the community as a
whole, but which is only tangibly localized in the priest. It only
means the incorporation of universal religious truth in concrete
form, and it only represents that in so far as it is active in making
that truth known. Since the position of the priesthood is estab-
lished by ecclesiastical law, it distinguishes quite logically between
the jus divinum , which refers only to this position of the priest
94 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
through which salvation is received and mediated, and its imme-
diate consequences, and the jus humanum, which refers to all the
other activity of the Church, which, so far as organization is con-
cerned, under certain circumstances is far more important ; that
is, it is a free and purely human activity capable of change with
a defined goal. To the extent in which Catholicism emphasizes
this aspect of the priesthood it can describe itself as a “religious
and non-political” Catholicism; it separates the Divine element
from the merely human. The whole value of the institution as an
organization, however, lies in the fact that it is so difficult to
distinguish the Divine and the human elements from each other,
and that this combination of elements makes it very easy to
invest a human order and centralization with the character of
Divine authority. The whole attempt to make this distinction is a
fiction ; it permits the free purely religious spirit and the severe
methods by which it is realized to blend with each other, and
while it emphasizes the original spiritual and inward idea, it yet
binds it up indissolubly with the strictly clerical-sacramental
organization. This is the real secularization of the Church in
which the central point of religion is materialized and external-
ized, and delivered up into the hands of the secular art of organ-
ization. This secularization affected the other spheres of life,
science, and art, and the life of the State and of Society, far less.
So far as these spheres of life were concerned, Christian thought
retained its original religious and supernatural character in rela-
tion with them, and, after the sociological results of the sacramental
priesthood had been completed, to some extent in monasticism,
and partly later on in the lay religion of the declining Middle
Ages, there issued from them violent forms of reaction. When that
took place, however, characteristically this always involved pro-
found agitation and difficulty for the sociology of the religious
community itself.
In any case, however, here at the very beginning the most
urgent need — that of giving the sociological point of reference a
concrete form— has been met by this institution of the new priest-
hood, and all other organizations which serve the same end are
made subordinate to it. Moreover, it is only the centre or focus
for all development of that kind, but it is in no sense the only one.
As a certain definite idea of God formed the centre of the whole
system, the need to make this idea quite clear, with its resultant
influence on doctrine, became a main concern of the Church.
The work of fixing, proving, and developing the tradition al
doctrine became a matter for the clergy, and that is the reason
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 95
why the conception of God, the sociological point of reference of
the whole, is formulated as a conception of truth of the most
rigid kind, which completely corresponded to the conception
of truth of the philosophical formal scholastic doctrines, but
which was based upon authority and revelation. The ministry
possesses a truth of the highest order, uniform in meaning and
entirely comprehensive as the centre of its life, and this exclusive
conception of truth, which demands that all shall be subject to it
and to its dogma, then becomes the driving force in all its work
of unification and centralization ; later It becomes the reason for
the claim of the Church to have the supreme authority over the
spiritual life and everything which pertains to it. A situation in
which different churches can exist side by side will only become
possible when a different conception of truth prevails ; this was,
indeed, the case in pre-Catholic Christianity, whose great variety
was connected with a conception of truth which involved an
individualistic “enthusiasm 55 . 40 From the point of view of Church
History it is still more important to note that the spiritual energies
to which the new knowledge of God gave rise were not left entirely
to the purely inward influence of thought, but that as miraculous
processes they were connected with the miracle of sacramental
celebrations in particular. The mystery religions are drawn into
Christianity, above all, in order to concentrate the redeeming
power of the new knowledge of God in definite objective processes,
and thus to remove them from the sphere of a fitful, merely human
subjectivity. Even these rites which had originally been free were
also put under the control of the clergy. The sociological signifi-
cance of this fact, however, is extraordinary; it meant that the
sacraments were now not merely the highest and central point
of the cultus, but that, above all, they had become the main
channel through which salvation is imparted to the souls of men.
Outside the Sacrament there is no salvation and, since — with
negligible exceptions — there is no sacrament without a priest, so
there is no salvation outside the Church. The Church possesses
not merely the sole truth, but also and chiefly the sole power of
Imparting salvation through the sacraments which link the world
of sense and the super-sensible world. The Gospel, which was a
completely non-sacramental and purely ethical Gospel, has thus
assimilated a complex of ideas which was also alien to its basis in
Judaism, but which is fundamentally inherent in all natural
religion, and which from the point of view of Christ-mysticism
could very well be utilized as a means of restoring real substantial
40 Seep. 179.
9 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
union with God. 40a This also strengthened the religious-socio-
logical connection, which was indeed entirely opposed to the
original fundamental idea ; In any case, however, it replaces its
indefiniteness and looseness by a connection which cannot be
broken. So long as all participated in faith in the priesthood, the
sacraments, and the unity of religious knowledge it was indis-
soluble, and all that was weak and uncertain was finally absorbed
by it.
Once the Church had been organized on these lines, she became
an independent body, and it was only natural that her conception
of her own nature should lead her to form her own juridical
constitution. Accordingly, she gradually founded her own system
of law, the law of the Church, in which, from her own standpoint,
without any consideration for the State (which until then had
been the only possible source of law) , she evolved her own peculiar
conception of the legal relation between Society and the indi-
vidual, between the Church and the world. Thus the specific
sociological idea which had arisen out of concern for the salvation
of the soul now created for itself a new specific legal system. Out
of the original naive and concrete non-conceptual manner of
thinking, which centred round the sense-image of the Church
and of the presence of Christ in the Church, and then, later on,
in the actual union of the churches amongst themselves, in their
common possession of truth and salvation, the structure which
it had all unconsciously contained stood out in conceptual
clearness and was juridically expressed. The legal subjectivity of
the whole body and of the individual congregation, the sphere of
authority of the bishops in the first and the second respect, the
representation of this legal subjectivity, the rights of individuals
over against this objective law, ecclesiastical possession of pro-
perty, religious institutions of charity, the ecclesiastical control of
sections of life which could be reached (above all, in the law of
marriage), decisions affecting disputes of Christians amongst
themselves and the care of morals — all this became increasingly
the subject of an ecclesiastical-juridical system of thought . 41
40a Cf. Heitmuller : Taufe und Abendmahl bei Paulus , 1903. For the fundamental
significance of sacramentalism for Catholic Christendom see my article Der
Ehrhardsche Reformkatholizismus. Chr . Welt , 1902, JVr. so.
41 Gass: Gesch. d. Ethik, /, 71 229/. Attempts at the formulation of an
ecclesiastical marriage law already under Calixtus ; rejection of the death
penalty and attempts to substitute legal proceedings by the Church; Bigelmair ,
92-94, Constantine then granted legal validity to the episcopal sentences;
Weinel: Stellung u.s.w pp. 35-37.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 97
From this, however, there arose a stable organism, firmly united
in an organized ecclesiastical system, which was finally recognized
by the State, which was then slowly and painfully forced to
compromise with the law of the State, which was entirely different ;
in the Early Church, however, this system did not extend its
influence beyond its own borders and affect the social order In
general.
With great delicacy of feeling Gierke has analysed the socio-
logical meaning of this ecclesiastical law in contrast with the
general group-ideas of the Ancient World and of the Germanic
tribes, and has examined the significance of the ecclesiastical
conception of law for the development of the idea of fellowship
in general. In the Ancient World the sociological ideal starts
instinctively from the point of view of the city-state, of a com-
munity of citizens and of the ruling classes. Over all is enthroned
the law; and the objective value of the law means that neither
Society as a whole, nor the individual, has any legal claim apart
from that which is based upon participation in the law as a whole.
The legal group-fellowship itself arises from a central tendency of
human natural disposition. All religion is an affair of the State
and itself comes under the law. All associations are either identical
with the State, or they are merely groups formed rather casually
for certain definite ends, to which, under certain circumstances,
Roman law deliberately granted a fictitious juristic personality
{persona ficta ). In contrast to all this the Church presents an
entirely different sociological idea, and also an entirely different
idea of law. “While a group-unity whose origin, nature, and
destiny were transcendent was also called to be the ‘subject 5 of
an earthly sphere of law, there entered into the process of develop-
ment of the theory of what constitutes a community an element
which had previously been unknown. Just as the antique theory
regarded the State, so Christian theology regarded the Church,
as the living organism, as an independent and united whole. Only
here the organic way of thinking received a new religious and
mystical content. It utilized the figure of a body informed with a
soul in a sense far beyond that which similar conceptions of
ancient philosophy had ever reached. Here especially there was
added to the whole, at its transcendent Centre, a living spiritual
unity, while each member retained a value of its own, a special
personality. Here the relation of the whole to its parts, and of the
parts to one another, was conceived as an entirely reciprocal
relationship ; the principles of unity and of multiplicity were here
regarded as equally real* and equally necessary elements of the
VOL. 1. G
g8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
all-embracing Divine Being”. 42 Since this Divine Being became
tangible in the episcopate, “the Church appeared as a corpus
mysticum which, on the one hand, in a mystical manner was
inspired, directed, and bound together by God in a living unity,
while, on the other hand, as a body which was so constituted that
she also Formed an external ‘subject 5 of unity, she entered into
the temporal realm with the claim to have a legal right to exercise
her sovereignty over it. 55 Thus from within the Church appears as
an organism which is partly an institution for faith, partly a
fellowship of believers, while from without she appears to be the
ruler of a sphere of law which is independent of the State and
cannot be touched by the State. It is obvious that here the
mutual relationship of Christian individualism and universalism
is struggling to find a legal embodiment ; Gierke lays stress on the
fact that these ideas resemble the Germanic ideas of social unity,
which “assert, alongside of the rights of individuals as ‘subjects 5 ,
distinguished from one another in their peculiarity, the rights
which belong to a community, which has arisen out of an associa-
tion of individuals ; in this case the community itself is also re-
garded as a ‘subject 5 in the eyes of the law”. Within the Early
Church, however, this was all confined to the Church’s own
theory of her nature, and it did not colour the legal and socio-
logical thought of the State, but the birth of these ideas gave rise
to developments of the widest significance for all political and
sociological thought, as well as for concrete institutions. 43 The
deep inner inconsistency of a law which takes its rise from a
transcendental source to be the fundamental characteristic of all
law, capable of being enforced, is only the result emerging in the
sphere of law of the general inconsistency between a purely
religious society of inward life and its being made objectively
tangible in dogma, sacrament, and ministry, and thus it only
emphasizes the difficult problem which occurs again and again
in the formation of a purely religious society. 44
The important element in this development, however, was not
merely the stabilization of the outward sociological form of the
Church by means of an authority which from every point of view
43 Cf. Gierke: Genossetischaftsmht, III, io8ff.; also the interesting section in
Harnack: Mission , I , 206-234, where the Christians describe themselves as a
“new nation and the third race”.
43 Gierke: III, ridf.; the formulae for the Germanic idea of corporation, III. i.f.
44 Sohm’s Kirchenricht, with its thesis that “Kirchemecht” is a contradiction in
terms, serves for the further discussion of this subject. Until now,- however, he
has not yet proved that it is possible to have a Church and an organized
religious fellowship without some kind of Church order.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 99
appeared purely supernatural, the very incarnation of miracle in
priesthood, Bible and Sacrament, in tradition and law, forming
the point of departure for the supernaturalism of the Church as
a whole; the progress made within the Church as a whole in
organization and classification was equally important. The rise
of the clergy as a body of men entrusted with the leadership and
government of the Church meant, that, owing to the need of the
organization itself, the clergy as a class were always striving to
perfect their own organization; the old charismatic gifts and
free offering of service were logically transformed into a hierarchi-
cal sacerdotal system, 44 * which placed the bishops and the clergy
in a special category by themselves, which was contrasted with the
rest of the community called the laity. These developments formed
the basis of the theocratic organization of the Church, in which
the ideas of a universal priesthood and of an abstract religious
equality were isolated, and produced far-reaching and essential
differences. But this aristocracy differed from every other by the
fact that it simply represented an attempt to render visible and
concrete the redeeming energies contained within the Church
as a whole ; this emphasis was necessary lest these energies should
become stifled and obscured by over-emphasis upon human
effort ; accordingly, it is always fundamentally referred back to
the whole. On that account either the laity becomes a semblance
or it leads to the restriction and depreciation of the clergy. Hence
the contrast between the priesthood and the laity and the conse-
quent power of the priesthood was made ethically fruitful along
the same lines of religious patriarchalism, which we have already
seen to be operative in differences of other kinds: the priest is
regarded as the father of the congregation and the servant of
the servants of God. Just as the germ of the patriarchal idea was
contained in the religious reverence for personality and the
resultant overcoming of accidental differences, so this system of
theocratic authority contained the germ of a ladder-like organiza-
tion of the whole of Society, which in the Middle Ages was
destined to come into close touch with feudalism. In the Early
Church neither of these tendencies had yet begun to develop.
The element of patriarchalism was expressed merely in a con-
servative acceptance of the existing situation, while the hierarchi-
cal idea simply led to a more closely knit organization within the
Church itself. Moreover, the bishops of the primitive period were
still simple handicraftsmen, traders, and, under certain circum-
44a Cf. Hamack: u Uber dm Ursprung des Lektorats und der anderen niederen Weihen
(Texte und Untersuchungm, III \ 5).
xoo THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
stances, even slaves. The priestly office was only an honorary post,
alongside of which a man earned his living as a citizen. Only
gradually did the intellectual and well-to-do people press into
the ministry, like Cyprian, for instance, and it was only after the
Church had received the legal right to hold property, and after
the imperial privileges of the post-Constantine period, that the
bishops became a ruling class.
The Church and the World
What then, we may ask, was the attitude of this Christian-social
organism to the social institutions of the “world”? Before this
question can be answered, however, we must realize the changes
and further developments In the ethical thought and sentiment of
the Christian churches which had meanwhile taken place. These
changes were the crux of the whole problem. It is most important
to note the very characteristic idea which was expressed by the
fact that the term “the world” came to be regarded as a synonym
for all those social institutions of life outside the Church ; it was
this idea which determined the attitude of the Christian Church
towards them.
The more the Christian movement closed its ranks and became
an organized and unified body, the more it tended to regard the
rest of life as the “world”. In the eyes of Jesus the ordinary life of
humanity, in spite of its sin, was full of traces of the Divine good-
ness, and He recognized the naive and natural accents of piety
in children, sinners, and Samaritans ; to Him the dividing-line was
not drawn between the world and the Church, but between the
present and the future ; even in the thought of Paul, however, the
Kingdom of Ghrist, or the Church, already stands out in complete
contrast to the kingdom of the first Adam, of the flesh, of sin, of
the law, and of the devil. With the idea of the sacerdotal and
sacramental Church as the civitas Dei, uh around which the
angels play, and in which the Christ-God sits enthroned, the
opposite idea of the “world” as the kingdom of Satan, in which
there is nothing but perdition and impotence, was intensified. In
this idea of the contrast between the Church and the world the
sociological aspect of Christian thought was brought to a clear
and settled issue, which became increasingly important for the
social doctrines of Christianity. It was at this point that primitive
44b The expression civitas Dei is not primarily Augustinian; Paul had already
described the Christian community as a rroMrevpia evofipavotg, and in Hennas,
too, ttoAiq is the expression for Christianity in contrast with the city of this
world ; Weinel: Stelhmg u.s.w ,, p. 52.
102
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Christian apologetic became aggressive, since in order to maintain
the unique redemptive power of the Christian faith all the forces
of the world for good must be either denied or depreciated. All
further developments in thought and in organization were deter-
mined by this point of view. Deliverance from the world comes
to be regarded as a completely sacramental miracle, whether it be
through baptism or through repentance, and the ethic of the
Church becomes the ethic of the morality of grace, of the super-
natural impartation of moral power, which cannot be derived
from the world but only from the miracle of the Divine-human
Church. Further, all the content of moral conduct is now placed
in the sharpest contrast to secular conduct, and that element
which, in Jesus, was a kind of heroism which regarded the natural
conditions of ordinary human life with unforced detachment,
developed into asceticism ; this was due to the influence of various
motives, in which, however, this idea of the gulf between the
world and the Kingdom of God predominated. This asceticism
was suspicious of Nature and hostile towards it, and it also fell
under the spell of Platonism, which taught that the world of sense,
with its phantasmagoria of delusive appearances, was entirely
opposed to the Idea of the Good. Above all, however — and this is
the most important point for us to note in this connection — the
world with all its ordinances came to be regarded as a solid and
unchangeable mass of evil, a system which could only be accepted
or rejected en bloc . Monasticism, which became the ideal rule of
life for the clergy, decided to reject it, while the great mass of the
workers felt they must accept it; in accepting the “world”, how-
ever, they also submitted to the consequences produced by the
Fall. From that time forward, when Christians wished to take part
in secular life, the argument which was always employed was
this : these secular institutions are the result of sin ; by participa-
tion in this social order the Christian submits to the results of the
sin of humanity in general. He cannot alter these things ; all he
can do is to submit to them; in his heart he is still opposed to
them, and he himself has at least no inner pleasure in or attraction
to these things which he is forced to use, although they are due to
sin alone. Throughout the whole history of the Primitive Church
this was the accepted point of view, and even at a later stage the
Church fell back on this argument when she felt it necessary to
do so. As we study the question of the social attitude and activity
of the Church the significance of this development of thought will
become plain.
ioa THE SOCIAL TEACHING Of THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Asceticism
As we have already seen, asceticism in its particular Christian
and ecclesiastical form, which was the strongest force in the Early
Church, had developed naturally out of that contrast between the
world and the Church. Nothing, indeed, would be more erroneous
than to seek to explain the rise of this mighty and serious pheno-
menon simply by the need for the establishment of a contrast of
this kind. But the special form and influence of ecclesiastical
asceticism was certainly very closely connected with it. In itself
asceticism is based on something much broader and more uni-
versal ; indeed, it can be interpreted in a variety of ways which
need to be satisfactorily ascertained. There is an “asceticism”
which is simply the result of a religious idea which has come into
its own and then developed its whole depth of meaning. Where
communion with God and life in God are sought there the sense
of mortality, of nothingness, or at least of the vanity of all earthly
values, arises, and religion develops into redemption. With the
final period of the ancient world the religious movements of the
time introduced— ‘even on the intellectual side — the belief in
redemption and the depreciation of secular life. This meant,
however, a real dualism, faith in a principle in the world which
was opposed to God ; it was not an inevitable conclusion. It was
transcendental, but it did not deny the value of the world . 45 The
Gospel and the teaching of Jesus were of this kind. The Hope of
the Kingdom of God which JesuS proclaimed, and the radicalism
of His ethical and religious demand, simply destroyed the
power of worldly interests by the demand for trust in God and
simplicity of life ; otherwise, however, Jesus accepted the Jewish
faith in the Creation, and with that He unquestioningly accepted
the world and its simple and innocent joys. The fact that the
mind of Jesus and of the most primitive period of the Church was
full of the hope that the ideal would very soon be realized in a
marvellous way also helped to lessen the value of the short
remaining span of the world ; this depreciation, however, did not
take the form of denial of the world, of the senses, or of nature ;
it was rather an attitude of indifference towards an order which,
in any case, is about to pass away. It was rather a radical super-
45 Cf. Siebeck; Lehrbuch der Religionsphilosophie, 1833, pp. 1-31, 101-136. A positivist
like Bender sees in every form of metaphysic (that is, in every assertion of a
reality which differs from direct experience and can only be conceived through
the intellect) the germ of dualism and therefore of asceticism; cf. Metaphysik
undAsketik (Archiv.f. Gesch. d. Philos., VI, 1888).
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 103
naturalism, a heroism which was not concerned with the condi-
tions of ordinary ]ife, rather than asceticism in the more literal
sense ,* 6
It was only when mysticism and an acosmistic pantheism
entered in that faith in redemption really became asceticism, for
which reason also the monastic life was described as the philo-
sophic life. “Asceticism 3 5 , however, did not rise only out of the
central religious aim, but also out of the ethical rigorism of the
Gospel. The purely spiritual ethic which dispenses with law and
authority could only be carried out in practice in very simple
social conditions, and it assumed a situation in which small
groups of people were living in close touch with each other.
When Christianity became involved in larger and more compli-
cated social conditions, Christians found it advisable either to
remain aloof from them altogether, or to establish special groups
of their own in which such practice was possible. That also was
scarcely asceticism ; it only meant holding aloof from the dangers
and complications of the life round them, but it easily developed
into asceticism, especially in monastic circles.* 6 *
Genuine asceticism, however, very easily fell into a mistake
which was closely related to its own ideas ; this development had
a great effect upon the whole conception of asceticism. The
confusion of thought arose in this way. Since the characteristics
of the evangelical ethic were self-denial and the severity of its
demands, it seemed, inversely, as though everything which was
difficult, self-denying, and contrary to nature were a service to
God demanded by the Gospel. A similar confusion of thought is
evident when the exercises which were meant to aid in religious
concentration, and the preservation of morality, were made an
end in themselves, and were used to satisfy the desire to attract
attention and appear singular, as nearly always happens in
groups which practise an overstrained piety. While the self-
denial of the evangelical ethic had a positive aim— the love of
God and the love of humanity— and thus produced the inner
46 Here the researches of Jacoby: Neutestamentliche Ethik contain much useful
material.
4?a See above, p. 86, and Harnack: Das Mbnchtum , seine Ideale und seine Geschichie ,
1907, p. 10; “The imitation of Christ in which the desire for the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness is realized, includes the casting aside of all that
can hinder. Monasticism, however, tried to do further justice to the command
‘deny thyself* by applying renunciation wholesale, without consideration of
the nature or the calling of the individual in particular.” The latter, however,
produces categories in which only Lutheranism was able to solve the problem,
or believed that it had solved it.
104 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
values of union with God or the filial relationship with God, here
self-denial became an end in itself, a good work, a penance, an
achievement, which is all the more valuable the more it opposes
natural feelings and the more difficult it is to struggle against
them. The good works of mortification and humiliation arose out
of a certain association of ideas, all of which were connected with
the depreciation of the value of personality through an exagger-
ated emphasis upon the doctrine of Original Sin, coupled with the
lowering of the evangelical standard to a system of quantitative
merit and a detailed eschatology of punishment and reward.
Exaggeration of this kind, and a tendency to reduce a spiritual
religion to the popular level, are phenomena which are insepar-
ably connected with every form of idealism, and it was therefore
only natural that they should appear in connection with primitive
Christian idealism; as the “good works” of mortification and
humiliation they served the ends of the salvation of the soul and
of deliverance from the final judgment. Mortification — as well as
the ideal of “virginity” — became the most peculiar and the most
frequent form of Christian asceticism, which found its permanent
source of nourishment in the increasing emphasis upon the
doctrine of Original Sin, and in an ever more highly developed
system of eschatology. It contained an element of passivity, of
pure negation and ethical aimlessness, which constituted a
hindrance to the true Christian ethic and was in opposition to
its fundamental tendencies. On the other hand, however, since
an asceticism of this kind presupposes an extraordinary effort of
the will and of enthusiasm, it is always, or at least very frequently,
one of the strongest means of vivifying and stimulating Christian
movements of thought ; and, since it was not based upon a system
of acosmism, nor indeed upon any system at all, but was only an
extraordinary effort of the will and an eschatological and eudae-
monistic guarantee, so, without any theory at all, it was able to
unite with all positive tendencies of deliberate charity or useful
occupation. Under some circumstances it was able to exercise the
most varied effects, hindering and furthering, in accordance with
principle or against principle; it could be exercised in all forms
and degrees, in mere self-discipline and in the monastic life, and
also in the wildest eccentricities . 4613
On the other hand, another source of genuine asceticism is to
be found in conscious and willed dualism ; it appears in the East
with the so-called Gnostic movements whose origin is still very
obscure, and in the West with Neo-Platonism and Pythagoreanism.
<6b See p. lyg.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 105
Here it developed into the opposition between sense and spirit,
into the fight against the realm of sense and matter as such ; the
denial of the material world is expressed sometimes by the
severest abstinence, sometimes by a libertine ignoring of material
conditions altogether . 47 Paul’s doctrine of the flesh and the spirit
seems already to contain some admixture of this element, and his
conception of the thought of redemption is also influenced by it :
in his doctrine he offers not merely a future redemption in the
Kingdom of God, but a redemption that has already been
achieved in the overcoming of the flesh through the Death of
Christ. Paul did not deduce asceticism from that doctrine, how-
ever ; in his mind, too, the sinfulness of the flesh is determined
by the Fall — that is, by the will of the creature.
With Gnosticism, however, dualistic asceticism penetrated into
Christianity, and in its wake came the whole technique of frenzied
and ecstatic movements. Behind and beneath these religious
desires for redemption and the speculative dualism a more
universal reason was the decline of an overripe and static
civilization, whose delight in life and vitality had been drained
out of it, and which in dull dissatisfaction with itself was seeking
for something new; it desired to go beyond itself, and therefore
grasped eagerly at all new movements. This is, indeed, a solemn
and affecting spectacle for all who have gazed with admiration
at the splendid development of this civilization, and who feel that
a similar fate threatens every fully developed form of civilization.
This ‘mood, however, was not really asceticism ; it was satiety,
exhaustion, and fatigue, and those who were influenced by it only
dabbled in the ascetic doctrines and cults which appeared in the
hope of finding something new and higher . 48
Further (and this seems particularly strange to us) there was an
extraordinary increase of the belief in demons, a phenomenon
which was due to a great variety of causes ; in the main, however,
it may be ascribed to the decline of faith in the old religions which
characterized the Imperial age, and to the religious unrest which
this produced. The whole world was believed to be full of demons.
The atmosphere swarmed with them. These “spirits” were no
longer conceived as morally indifferent ; they were now regarded
47 Gf. Anz: %ur Frage nach dem Unprung des Gnostizismus (Texte und Untersuchungen ,
XV, 4), Rohde: Psyche , 2 i8g8. The research Into these questions is only now
becoming active. Here especially the eschatological ideas of late antiquity
ought to be studied, in order to see how far they led to asceticism. We need to
remember, however, that in itself eschatology does not mean asceticism.
48 See p. 179.
io6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
as dangerous and wicked, and contact with, them must be avoided
at all costs. This fear gave rise to a host of precautions and methods
of repelling the demons, which robbed life of all spontaneity. In
this situation Christian thinkers only needed to identify matter
with evil spirits and world principles, or the pagan world with
the dominion of Satan, in order to be able to argue the need for
detachment from the whole world of matter and of sense ; prudence
suggests doing too much rather than too little, and thus detach-
ment from the sense life leads to an asceticism, which, however,
is not really based upon the metaphysical dualism of spirit and
matter. In all this there may be a basis of theoretical monotheism
and a conviction of the unity of the world principle, but the
reawakened and vigorous elements of polytheism were able to
gain a footing within the whole religious outlook because they
were linked up with the general ideas of good and evil through
the belief in good and evil demons ; and since polytheism developed
into the fear of demons, it was able to further the growth
of asceticism in spite of a theoretical belief in the goodness of
the world . 19
Finally, we may perhaps also discover another reason for the
growth of asceticism in the neuropathic weakening of vitality,
due to a certain weariness and slackness of the sex instinct, caused
by ignorance of the laws of sex. In any case, this fact caused a
great deal of trouble during the Imperial age, and on purely
social and ideal grounds it is difficult to explain why the ideal of
chastity should increase to such a great extent. The explanation
can scarcely be solely in the natural desire of strong religious
feeling to thrust out of its way the rival interest of eroticism,
whether through severe discipline of the sex instinct or through
the fusion of erotic and religious excitement, nor by the effort to
neutralize the sex life by the strength of its own feeling . 50 It looks
rather as though the real reason for the immense appeal of this
ascetic ideal lay in the fact that the civilized world of that day
was suffering from a nervous disease which sought purification
and support in religious ideas. In any case, the stress laid on the
“purity” of the “virgin” state opened the door to asceticism, and
at the same time there was a great outburst of similar ideas— men
sang the praises of vegetarianism and simplicity of life, of the
natural state, and of the hermit life. When this ideal of celibacy
began to appeal to the healthy and the strong, it produced a
system of physical self-torture whose one aim was the repression
19 Cf. Weinel: Geist und Glister itn nachafiastolischert ^eitalter, i 8 qq,
50 Seep. 179.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 10?
of the sex instinct. This, of course, became combined with all the
abnormalities of the perverted sex instinct.
The life of the Christian Church then became involved inwall
these problems. The Gospel of Jesus and the teaching of Paul
had not encouraged asceticism, but they had encouraged an
attitude of indifference towards the natural conditions of existence,
only permitting them to be recognized to a limited extent. The
prevailing eschatological outlook also called for a heroism which
far transcended preoccupation with the concerns of everyday
life, and likewise impelled Christians to live under conditions of
great simplicity and intimacy. From that standpoint the Church
found it impossible to regard Nature, the world, and the sense life
as essentially and metaphysically evil and at enmity with God — a
tendency which the Old Testament, with its belief in the Creation,
its nature poetry, and its healthy Jewish proverb morality, which
the Church called in as a triumphant witness in the struggle
against Gnosticism, helped to strengthen. It was in that tendency
that the increasing adaptation to the world which accompanied
the growth of the Church found its justification, and it was in it
that the doctrine of a Divine germ of reason contained also in the
ordinances of the world maintained its logical connection with
its origin.
Now, however, the standard which permitted this degree of
recognition of the world had become extremely uncertain; the
tendency was to assign very little value to it at all, and in any
case any acknowledgment of secular values as having any use or
worth in themselves was completely excluded; even from the most
favourable point of view they were simply ordinances given with
the rest of creation, set up by the Will of God, and therefore simply
to be accepted. Under these circumstances all positive interest in
them was forbidden, and the reduction of them to a minimum
easily leads to complete negation; then one is sure of having
reached the absolute minimum. In addition, there were all the
other influences which have already been mentioned, especially
the belief in demons, which, in spite of a theoretical belief in
monotheism and faith in the goodness of the world, still can
admit per accidens that the world is so largely under the power of
sin and the devil that it leads to a practical attitude of negation.
The sense of uncertainty was further increased by the following
elements in the situation — speculative dualism, weariness of
civilisation, the hermit life, celibacy, the mood of martyrdom,
and the controversy about treatment of those who had avoided
martyrdom; all this made the Christian attitude towards the
io8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING. OP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
“world 55 a very perplexing matter, and those who could do so
sought to escape the problem by flight from the world altogether.
Even the Pauline exhortation so often quoted by the Fathers —
“Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called 55 —
merely inculcated submission to the order of this world, but no
inner appreciation of it, and the more Christians became in-
volved in the actual life and work of the great world around them,
the more acute the problem became. Thus the attitude of the
leaders of the Church towards the “world 55 has become hesitating
and uncertain. They are doubtful about its origin, and this leads
them to advocate a semi-ascetic position; this position implies
a minimum of justification for the “world 55 , but the misgivings
with which even this “minimum 55 is regarded sometimes leads to
genuine and whole-hearted asceticism, while at other times,
under the pressure of practical circumstances, this “minimum 55
is considerably enlarged . 51
Into all this confusion and uncertainty the Church, which had
now begun to feel its sociological unity, brought a certain unity
and stability. The effect was both to restrict and to define more
clearly asceticism on the one hand and the idea of the “world 55
on the other. The Church pointed out that the “world 55 in itself
is not evil; it has only become so through the Fall, and it is only
under the power of the demons so long as it is sinful. It is certainly
everywhere steeped in sin, and forms a coherent system of sin, a
sociological counterpart of the Church. The only Divine element
within it is the spirit of order and of law, which assures the pax
terrena and thus the peaceful work of the Christians. Christians
themselves, however, do not live directly within the world, but
only through the medium of the Church. They are, first of all,
members of the Church, and it is only as such that they live at
the same time in the world, since the Church, while it is still in
the flesh, is ecclesia militans . Thus the Church permits its members a
minimum of participation in the life of the world, and takes from
them the responsibility for their own decision. She regulates this
minimum herself, and at the same time secures the ascetic spirit
by the very demands she makes on the laity in their relation
to the Church. These requirements are summed up in the humility
which renounces all self-will, opens the heart to the inflow of
sacramental grace (which alone gives the power to achieve any
good), and in the love which sets the unity of the Church above
all else. For the great majority of the faithful this way of life makes
it possible to preserve the ascetic spirit without a sense of strain . 52
51 Seep. 180. fi 2 Seep. 180.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 109
There is, however, a higher degree of perfection, in which com-
plete asceticism, poverty, and celibacy can be partially or wholly
attained. This is a special Charisma , which indeed should always
characterize the priest, and which is supported by laws for the
regulation of the lives of the clergy.
This expedient of a dual and yet equally binding morality is,
however; no mere renunciation of the real fundamental ideal of
asceticism. Rather it corresponds to a dual tendency, which, from
the very beginning, was always present in Christian thought:
this dual tendency includes, on the one hand, the spirit which sees
the goodness of God expressed in this world as it now is, and, on
the other, that aspiration and desire which long to rise above this
world into the freedom of the children of God and into spiritual
unity in Him as its final and supreme End. But in the special
form which it here assumed it was limited by all the forces of
the situation at that time, and especially by the opposition of the
Church — as an institution which alone contains salvation and
redemption — to the world which has been handed over to the
Evil One. In itself, however, this opposition was not due to the
influence of asceticism ; it was due, first of all, to the fact that the
Church claimed that she alone possessed the Truth, together with
the miraculous power which went with it ; it was, therefore, an
effect of the supernatural claim with which the Church had
secured her position against the world. This supernaturalism
then provided a great opportunity for the development of asceti-
cism, which was encouraged by the influence of Paul’s teaching
on sex questions, and by the Jewish practice of fasting and the
Jewish doctrine of almsgiving. In the mind of Jesus grateful en-
joyment of the innocent pleasures of this world and the severity
of His high ideal had existed side by side, without difficulty or
strain. In the Church, however, in the far more complicated life
of the world, both these elements drifted farther and farther away
from one another. The natural assumption of the heroism of the
Gospel, the expectation of the End, receded ; that indifference to
the values of civilization which was quite intelligible in the
enthusiasm of the founding of a religion, and in the rural sim-
plicity of Galilee, could not be maintained. Thus everything came
to be regarded from the standpoint of the contrast between the
Church and the world. The religious reference in particular, of
all moral commands towards fellowship with God which could
only be won through obedience, developed very largely into
asceticism, or the breaking of the natural will simply for the sake
of destroying it and for* the merit which was thus acquired. From
no THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
that time forward the Church was only able to unite these two
elements by proclaiming a double standard of morals, by making
a clear distinction between an ethic which was semi-ascetic and
an ethic which was asceticism pure and simple . 53
Ethic of Early Catholicism
Under these influences the whole ethic of the Church became
entirely changed. It lost the certainty of aim which was contained
in the twofold idea of self-consecration for the love of God and
the brethren, and it was broken up into varied combinations of
particular scriptural commands, unscrupulous borrowings from
the ethics of Stoicism and of Cynicism, ascetic regulations and
regulations of church order; it confused worship and ethical
behaviour, and connected good works, fasting, and almsgiving
with the idea of merit and the assurance of personal salvation.
The Christian nature of morality seemed to lie no longer in the
direct specific content of the Ethos, but in the supernatural char-
acter of Christian behaviour, which is due to grace alone; and
the difference between it and heathen morality seems to consist
no longer in opposition to the order of the State and the spirit of
eudaemonism, but in opposition to the use of natural powers.
From the time of the Pelagian controversy the whole question
centres round this formal difference. Augustine’s own famous
doctrine (continually repeated in the Middle Ages) of the content
of the Christian moral law was this : that it consists in directing
all activity towards the ultimate goal of union with God, and
then expresses itself in contemplative purity of heart and in
active brotherly love. This doctrine had already introduced
strange and confusing motives into Christian ethics: (i) by the
place given to contemplation, and (2) by the distinction drawn
between the contemplative and the active life; thus these ideas
of Augustine did nothing to encourage the formation of a system of
Christian ethics. The Christian ethic consisted, in fact, rather in
an extremely varied mass of regulations in which the Christian
element depends mainly on achievements effected by grace but
tinged with asceticism . 533 The Church was, however, already so
firmly united as a sociological organism, and it contained the
fundamental ethical ideas so clearly within its structure, that this
uncertainty in the realm of ethics could not endanger it. It did
not actually need a system of ethics at all, and instinctively and
unconsciously it imparted to its ethical teaching those funda-
58 Seep. 181.
ss * Cf. Gass: Gesck. der Ethik, 1 , 174; Liebner; Hugo v. St. Victor , 1832, pp. 466 ff.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH m
mental impulses which in another form were really the funda-
mental commandment of love to God and love to the brethren ;
the form alone had been altered by the influences of asceticism,
ecclesiasticism, the idea of merit/and other-worldliness. In so doing
both these fundamental requirements of Christianity have re-
placed their original simple religious aim of a filial relationship
with God, and the fellowship of love with one another, by the
more complicated intention directed towards the Church and
asceticism. Self-consecration in free obedience of conscience, with
the goal of the infinite value of the soul, heart purity, and the love
of God, become humility and meekness towards the Church,
which involves the sacrifice of one’s own will and of one’s own
knowledge, and is ethically most valuable when the renunciation
is most difficult. Brotherly love, with the aim of the universal
fellowship of love, becomes the collective consciousness of the
Church, which has the right to claim every sacrifice of the indi-
vidual will, and without which a man is like a withered leaf
fallen from the parent stem. It is precisely in obedience to the
Church, and in sacrifice for the unity of the Church, that the
destruction of the ego and self-sacrifice for others is exercised,
good works are acquired, and future salvation is assured. That
which a man renounces he gives to the Church, and by means of
services of this kind, controlled by the Church, he secures salva-
tion in the other world, and this again is mediated by the Church.
This also leads to a change of emphasis among the fundamental
elements of the sociological idea of the Gospel. Whereas this
sociological idea arose in a radical religious individualism, which
developed its universalism through the meeting of individuals in
God, and by the fact that those who are united to God then turn
back to the world in order to reveal the Divine spirit of love to
the brethren, now the chief emphasis is laid on the authority of
the Church, charity consists in submission to the Church, and in
doing good Works for the brethren. Ascetic meritorious love
swallows up individualism; love becomes the chief and funda-
mental virtue, based upon humility, which, with its strong psycho-
logical tendency towards inwardness and introspection, maintains
the fundamental Christian individualism, and indeed, from this
source, permits it continually to break out anew. Among other
things, monasticism 'and contemplation were the salvation of
Christian individualism, in the only form in which it was then
possible to preserve it . 54
Out of all the confusion of the “ethic” of the Church, which, in
61 See p. 182.
112 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the main, cannot in any way be compared with the scientific
systems of Greek morality, the two ancient fundamental com-
mandments have again reasserted their power, summing up in
themselves the essence of the whole, only in a sense altered by
ecclesiasticism and asceticism. In so doing they also determine
the sociological fundamental theory in which man is related to
man, absorbing into it the hierarchical organization of laity,
clergy, and monks, and, together with Christian patriarchalism,
they shape life as far as it was possible to them, that is, life in the
home and in the Church. The Church was still too small and
inwardly too remote from the world to desire to carry this out
into the public and common life.
The Church and Social Problems
Although, therefore, the Church now actually controlled social
problems from the point of view of these fundamental ideas, she
could only do it directly for herself and in the circle within reach
of her influence. Since from the time of the Antonines the number
of her members had enormously increased, she had to do within
her community that which she had no power to do outside. For
herself and within her own sphere she had to attack social prob-
lems. Since, however, all these institutions belonged to the State,
to its legal system, to its ordering of property, and to its social
structure, the Church found directly that all its contact with the
world outside forced it to consider its relation to the State. The
Church did not regard the State merely as the power which
ordered that Christians should be persecuted — the Christians
ascribed persecutions either to individual emperors or to the
people and their misunderstanding of the Christians — to the
Church the State was before all else the support of those institu-
tions, and so in the long run it was impossible to hold a purely
negative or even a merely indifferent attitude towards it. But a
clear and settled attitude to the State was the latest development
of all. Public life and the State offered in the beginning the fewest
direct contacts with the social formation of the churches, and for
a long time the Christians did all that was possible to keep out of
the way in order to avoid friction. It was only when, from the
third century onwards, the social changes in the Christian
churches rendered this attitude impossible, that gradually a more
clearly defined position with reference to the State had to be
adopted. In the Christian Empire, moreover, this became abso-
lutely necessary. So the social influence of the Church was felt
first of all at its most accessible point— -the family, which the
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 113
Church henceforth regarded as the basis of all social and political
order ; then its social influence was felt in the economic realm
and in Society, with which the life of the family is inextricably
mingled ; and finally in the State, which maintains the stability
of the whole.
If we are to understand these social achievements and theories
of the Early Church, however, we must keep always clearly before
us the following points, some of which have already been men-
tioned. The first point of importance is the decline of millenarian-
ism and the transformation of the idea of the Kingdom of God.
Even in the apostolic age the idea of the Kingdom of God had
become merged with that of the Church, and the idea of the
coming of the Kingdom was replaced by the exaltation of the
Church, the shattering of the earthen vessel, and the freeing of the
gleaming treasure from all that concealed its glory. Otherwise
the idea of the Kingdom of God was replaced by “eschatology”,
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, immortality and the future life, a
contrast with the teaching of the Gospel, which is of the highest
significance. But even this final “end” was continually deferred,
until at last the Thousand Year Reign of Christ was applied to
the Church . 55 The effect of this change was certainly a closer
connection between the Church and the world, but most em-
phatically it did not mean that the Church really acknowledged
the world as the embodiment of independent ethical values.
Rather, precisely to the extent in which the indifference to the
world which was felt by all who cherished the hope of the im-
minence of the coming of the Kingdom receded, it was replaced
by the spirit of an ascetic condemnation of the world. Thus the
effect of the decline of the Hope of the Kingdom was twofold.
The Kingdom which the Early Church had expected was, indeed,
an ideal state of life upon earth, not an eschatology of heaven and
hell, and to this extent it led inevitably to a certain regard for life
in the world. This expectation might foster indifference towards
the present world, but its effect was not directly ascetic. When,
however, the hope of the Kingdom was replaced by an “eschat-
ology 55 , naturally the result was a closer identification with the
65 For the very early identification of the Church with the Kingdom of God,
cf. Wernle: Reichgotteshoffnung nach den altesten Dokumenten. — Hippolytus thinks
the world will last about 300 and Lactantius 200 years; Bigelmair, S. 15. With
the exclusion of Montanism (which meant the revival of eschatology and of a
correspondingly strict separation from the world) this tendency became con-
firmed. Augustine; Be civitate Dei , XX, 9. 2 , identifies the 1 ,000 years’ kingdom
with the Church, gives also about 600 years, and indeed later, in the year iooo,
the end of the world was expected.
VOL. I. H
H4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN GHURCHES
permanent life of the world; at the same time this abstract
eschatology, with its mere rewards and penalties and their
entirely other-worldly character, led to a decided increase in the
depreciation of the world as a whole ; the Church now felt itself
to be opposed, not only to the pagan world, but to the world in
general. It was only at this point that there arose that direct
contrast between this world and the other which produced the
spirit which was concerned mainly with a future salvation, with
the desire to pile up “merits 53 and “good works 55 ; this meant that
men soon decided that the best way to pile up “good works 35 was
through the practice of asceticism. Thus it was precisely this
eschatology which produced asceticism; its influence in this
direction was far stronger than that of the hope of the Kingdom of
God. The aims of the asceticism of the West, and the early Middle
Ages in particular, were purely eschatological and eudaemon-
istic. 55a The fundamental attitude of the Gospel towards the
“world 33 was retained, but the influence of the hope in the
coming of the Kingdom was replaced by asceticism; this en-
couraged the growth "of asceticism, for at that time it was not
realized that this tendency was opposed to the spirit of the
Gospel. The need for modification and adaptation was met by
the double standard of morality.
The second point is the conviction that existing conditions are
static and immutable. They seem to constitute a system In which
each part depends on the others, and which can only be thus or
not at all . 56 It is the absolutist habit of mind, which can only
think of the Church and the “world 55 in terms of “absolutes 53 .
This way of thinking also reveals the peculiar sentiment of the
Ancient World itself, which had done with the Empire and had
outlived its impulses in life and education; yet, in spite of the
enormous change in its social, economic, administrative, and legal
structure, it still could not imagine any other future than the
continuation of the Roman Empire and its officials. Rome is
eternal. Further, the Ancient World only regarded politics and
economics as part of ethics or of positive law, and it had no power
of thinking independently on economic and social problems.
The third point is the increasing complexity of the social
and economic situation of the members of the Church. Questions
of property and profession may have been comparatively easy to
settle so long as they only concerned a small middle class, but
This was the average reason for asceticism in the Gallic and the Frankish
Church. See Hauck: KG Deutschlands } I s6j 3 II y66; Harnack: Mdnchtum P
** Seep. 182.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 115
with the entrance of the wealthy and educated classes, i.e, from
the third and fourth centuries, these questions became far more
difficult. There were now Christians who held public official
positions, who served in the army, who had luxurious tastes,
who possessed scientific interests, men whose lives were woven
into the very fabric of the whole of the life of the State and of
Society. There were speculators, monopoly owners, holders of
large estates, officers, officials, nobles and scholars, artists and
technicians. It was all the more difficult to regulate the life of
these complicated masses because the principles which were
contained in the canonical Scriptures referred to far simpler
conditions. It is not surprising that inconsequences and sophistries
arose.
Finally, we must not forget the immense influence exercised by
the growing worlclliness of the Church ; the Church was largely
“secularized 55 by the world in the really bad sense of the word.
The earnestness of the genuine early Christians was followed by
the externalism of the nominal Christians, who really remained
just what they were before. However, at this point we can leave
them out of account. They did not affect the theory and ideal of
the Church so much as its practice.
Problem of Property
The first social problem with which the Church had to deal was
the problem of property. It was an extremely difficult problem,
and it was only solved amid much hesitation and uncertainty . 57
From the outset we can ignore all statements which ascribe
private property to sin, and which describe Paradise as the home
of communism; the very people who say these things urge the
Church to acquiesce for the present in the social order which has
been produced by sin. The only purpose served by such state-
ments was to establish the duty of charity on a firmer basis, since
charity, to some extent at least, restores the Primitive State. In
all this, however, there was no idea of doing away with private
property, and the special reference which it had at this point
to the Primitive State will be explained in another connection.
Also the frequent exhortations to regard property 58 as nothing, and
all the talk about community of possessions which are gifts of God
like light and air, were equally only a challenge to energetic
charitable activity. In all these discussions the possession of private
57 See p. 183.
68 A familiar phrase originating in Acts iv. 32 (the account of the “having all
things in common”).
n 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
property itself was always assumed. The problem, therefore, was
not that of private property in itself and the economic order
which was based upon it, but the measure and the range of the
duty of love. There was no economic problem of property, but
there was an ethico-religious problem, which fluctuated between
the radicalism of the claims of love and the natural claims of the
necessity of earning a living. At first, however, in the small and
poor churches the situation was simple. There was plenty of want
and distress, and the practice of charity naturally had to be
extended as far as possible. Then, too, the necessary minimum
of existence was quite clear : “Having food and raiment let us be
therewith content” (x Tim. vi. 8). The few people who were
well-to-do had their hands full in looking after the welfare of
others and in sacrificing themselves for the churches, as the letters
of Paul show clearly.
But as the churches increased in number, and there was a
greater variety in the economic conditions within them, the matter
became much more difficult. Now arises the problem of “the
rich”. Jesus’ radical commandment of love was now emphasized
in an abstract manner; the instructions to missionaries were
turned into universal dogmas, and the story of the Rich Young
Ruler was made the basis of the system. The ascetic basis
was quickened by the spirit of love, and the coarsening of the
Gospel morality of spirit and temper into the morality of good
works exalts individual deeds of sacrifice. The renunciation of
possessions now becomes the main demand, whether it be from
obedience to the commandment of love, which urges that no one
ought to possess anything for himself so long as others are in
want, or whether the ascetic idea is pre-eminent, that every joy
in possession is self-love and love of the world and a hindrance to
the love of God, or whether the sin-expiating power of almsgiving
is emphasized. 58a All along, however, private property itself
remains untouched, but it is limited to the absolutely necessary
minimum of existence; all that is superfluous must be given away.
Possessions and earthly goods are, as all the Fathers emphasize,
from God ; but they were originally destined for all, and it is only
due to sin and greed that they have been drawn into the present
oppressive state of affairs in which there are such glaring differ-
ences between those who have and those who have not. The
balance ought to be redressed, as far as possible, by love and
583 Cf. Seipel, 195-244. For the expiatory power of charitable deeds, which also
requires a spiritual effort, and is only applied to the smaller sins of everyday
life, see Seipel , 219-229.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 117
sacrifice . 5813 Quite naturally a great many obvious difficulties
arose in connection with this problem. For different positions in
life the existence minimum which is permitted is different.
Clement is even inclined to permit a certain amount of luxury
within the limits of the natural life, while Tertullian will not hear
of such a thing . 59 It was also clearly perceived that not a great
deal was gained merely by giving away, that it only impoverished
the well-to-do without really helping others, that property was
not merely a means of consumption, but that it was also a means
of production to many other people, that the very fact of active
charity assumed the existence of private property, that indis-
xriminate giving produced pride and self-righteousness in the
givers and the begging habit in those who received, but that the
heart of the problem was the spirit of love and inward detachment
from possessions, and that this energy of love was neither gained
nor exercised by mere charity. Considerations of this kind became
increasingly prominent as the number of churches increased, and
their life was more and more drawn into connection with the
general economic situation. On the other hand, however, it was
felt likewise that this contact with the world introduced a spirit of
compromise into the Church which weakened the radicalism of
the commandment of love with its emphasis upon the “one thing
needful 55 , and especially that it pierced the growing spirit of
asceticism at its most vital and effective point. So this spirit of
compromise was attacked by a bold radicalism which was all the
more purely ascetic in motive, the less reason there was to think
that in a great society gifts of love would really remove all distress.
Monasticism went forward until it established an actual system
of community of possessions, and at least the duty of giving away
was preached to the laity with increased energy. The great leaders
of the fourth century were all under the influence of this monastic
ideal, but they were also able to treat the laity, who were under
the influence of the natural life, more easily. Thus there arose a
twofold solution of the problem : on the one hand, there was an
ethic of compromise, with relative standards, which permitted
private property and “riches 55 ; which sanctions it as a means of
social prosperity, and only requires that superfluous possessions
shall be shared, and an inner spirit of detachment from all
pleasure in property. That means that those who have possessions
58b Hence for the present day the only profit which can be said to be allowed
by God is that which has been gained in decent and honest callings ; hence
also the criticism of the various callings which will be described later.
69 See p.184.
n8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
must limit them to the necessary existence minimum, and that
they must hold the rest in trust for purposes of charity. Finally,
for Christians and non-Christians the question of property is
outwardly and actually just the same. The Church also acquires
Church property in land, slaves, money, and payment in kind,
and thus acquires special property and the privileges of the
former temple property. Confronted with this the Fathers only
emphasized the fact that the inward attitude of the Christian
towards possessions ought to be different, and then stressed the
duty of regarding possessions as a gift of God which ought to be
used for purposes of charity. Above all, in a society constructed
upon the census and on distinctions based on wealth the Fathers
lay stress on the true and real classification of human beings
according to the only effective “riches”, the riches of virtue and
piety ; they also point out that the true order of rank is independent
of the social differences revealed by the census, which determined
the right of being elected to city councils, and the possibility of
belonging to the senate and the official classes. Here the Christians
appropriated for their own use similar powerful phrases of the
Stoics. That this “having property as though one had it not”
might lead just as easily to “having Christianity as though one had
it not” is obvious. All the more strongly, therefore, the other
solution was emphasized — the way of monasticism. Here the
difficulty was removed by doing away with private property alto-
gether ; the real motive for this, however, was no longer love but
asceticism: but in the love exercised within the monastic com-
munity, and in intercession for those who are living in the world,
love still comes into her own. Thus the principle of a double
morality, by means of which the Church solved the problem of
the relationship between the world and the ethic of the Gospel,
was also the solution of the problem of property.
Problem of Work.
Closely related to the problem of property was that of pro-
duction. (We must always remember that the question of property
was always regarded as a means of consumption.) Here the
simplest ideas prevailed. The amount of private property which
was considered to be absolutely necessary for the minimum of
existence, and for purposes of charity, is gained by work, which
in those early days naturally meant manual labour . 60 From the
very outset, therefore, work was emphatically encouraged. It was
prized also as an education in sobriety and industry, and as a
80 See p. 184.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 119
means of protection against certain dangers. Those who did not
want to work were sent about their business, and work was found
for the unemployed. Labour was also regarded as useful for the
purposes of asceticism and the discipline of the body; the monastic
ethic in particular stressed this aspect; moreover, the Church
Fathers also liked to proclaim this duty very often. From another
point of view, however, work was also regarded as the conse-
quence of the Fall and as the punishment of sin. We must not
expect to find here the love of work and its products ; that assumes
a far more positive appreciation of the world than the early
Christians possessed, and it cannot be conceived without pleasure
in possessions. 60a Therefore the saying that “Christianity has
dignified labour 55 ought not to be exaggerated. The appreciation
of labour was only natural since so many of the early Christians
belonged to the lower classes, in which the aristocratic words of
Aristotle about the mechanics were always as little understood as
our lower classes would understand the opinions of the “Junker 55
on labour and trade ; also the Cynics had already directly preached
the ethical value of work. The standpoint of the early Christians,
to whom manual labour was perfectly natural, was followed by
the demand that work should not be despised by the educated
Christians and by emphasis on the duty of charity towards the
working classes. Again and again the limited ancient political
ideal of the city-state appears, which assumes that a decent human
being lives on an income derived from land or business, and that
he has a great deal of leisure. The Christians, however, certainly
did increase the sense of the duty of labour. “If a man will not
work neither shall he eat 55 was strictly enforced. The refusal to
encourage beggars or the abuse of charity increased this attitude ;
the man who would not work lost his right to receive relief. The
monks also were made to work ; it remains to be proved how far
the same could be said of capitalists and large-property owners.
Here also the true ideal of labour was realized only in monasticism.
On this point an expression of Augustine is characteristic. He
demands work from the monks who come from the peasant and
labouring classes with the argument : If even a senator or a land-
owner who is unused to work must work in the cloister, how much
more is it the duty of peasants and labourers who are accustomed
to work. Above all, we must never forget that economic views
were very little developed in the Ancient World, and that among
the Christians they were quite naive. Christians who have lost
60a See, however, the esteem in which the arts were held by Origen, Seipel, J59 ;
here it is obvious that Greek culture has had its own influence.
120 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
their positions and their means of livelihood are answered in the
following strain by Tertullian : “Hunger can have no terror for
him who is ready to die with Christ.” Against the objection that
the giving away of goods in alms may endanger the existence of
the family and the children Cyprian retorts : “God is the best
guardian and steward for the children”; and this becomes a
standing theme of Christian morality. It is Cyprian, too, who
attributes economic distress to over-population and preaches
celibacy as a cure ; when the world was young the commandment
at the Creation to increase was the right one, but for the old age
of the world the command is the evangelical counsel of chastity.
Augustine comforts a merchant who feels that he cannot conduct
his business according to strictly moral principles with profit by
saying that God, who has already nourished him while he was
acting unrighteously, will much more support him when he is
dealing righteously. The misgivings which people expressed in
Constantinople, that after a “communistic” pooling of income
and all has been spent there will be nothing left, were silenced
by Chrysostom with the assurance that “the Lord will provide”.
With people of this kind it is no use looking for penetrating ideas
on economic questions. The whole of modern political economy,
and the modern pride in mastering the world in the technical
and economic sphere, would have been just as unintelligible to
them as anxiety about economic and social crises. They lived in an
entirely different world. Yet this naivete of theory in economic
matters does not mean ignorance in practical affairs. The Church,
which acquired great wealth in capital, slaves and land, whose
bishops finally played a great part as large landowners, whose
assistance was enlisted by the State — which was no longer equal
to its responsibilities — for police work, the care of the poor, and
the control of the population, possessed, on the practical side, an
extraordinary intelligence in economic matters. Only its effect
upon theory was either nil, or, at most, merely incidental.
The Church and Social Distinctions:
Classes and Callings
It is, therefore, not surprising that the Christians did not indulge
in any criticism of the economic ideas which underlay the social
life of the world around them ; indeed, they do not appear to have
felt that there was anything to observe or to criticize . 61 They seem
to have accepted unquestioningly the whole social structure, with
its professional and labour organization, its distribution of wealth
61 See p. 185.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 12 1
and property, and its social classification as part of the life of the
State ; in the pre-Diocletian period, indeed, this organization varied
greatly; to a great extent it was still subject to free competition,
and it was only gradually regulated by the social policy of the
Emperor. As we have already seen, during the peace of the
Imperial period there never were any great social movements,
with an equally constructive criticism of social conditions, in
spite of the suppression of ancient capitalism by a bureaucratic
government, the decline in the slave markets, and the growth
of a mixed lower middle class composed of slaves, freedmen,
and free men. Indeed, it was only thus that it was possible for
a movement like Christianity to arise which was essentially
philanthropic but not social. Within their own circle and in
religious matters the Christians did away with social distinctions ;
in every other sphere they allowed them to remain. The main
point is this : The Early Church seems to have been familiar with
the idea of variety in business and trade, and with differences of
rank and class, but it had no idea of a “calling”, in the sense in
which that word was used in the central period of the Middle
Ages and by the early Protestants. The reason for this is obvious.
An ethic which starts from the point of view of an original equality,
and which holds that the differences that do exist are due to sin,
and which at its best regards the division of labour as a Divine
arrangement adapted to the needs of fallen humanity, is inher-
ently unable to see any value in “callings” at all. At the beginning,
during the period when the Church appealed mainly to the lower
middle class, its eschatological outlook and the spirit of other-
worldliness had also prevented the development of this feeling.
At the outset the Jewish artisan point of view, the emphasis on
the absolutism of the Divine Government of the world, as well as
on predestination, had strongly emphasized the fact that external
inequality could exist alongside of an interior equality, while at
the same time work was held in high esteem. As the Church
strengthened her position, however, more and more clearly
religious equality stood out as an essentially attractive element in
Christian doctrine ; it became fused with the Stoic ideal of
Reason, and it asserted that at least in the Primitive State entire
equality had prevailed. This, however, had the effect of decreasing
the social distinctions in the contemporary social order, although
it did not remove them. On the other hand, however, the social
order of the Imperial period did not provide a basis for the devel-
opment of this conception ; this was only given at a later stage by
the feudal society of the Middle Ages, and then, above all, by the
122 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
industrial town with its closely knit political and economic unity.
Apart from the river-civilization of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the
social life of the Imperial period was based upon the town with
its democratic form of organization, upon the equal light of
citizenship for all, upon a comparative freedom in trade and
emigration (which, however, steadily decreased), upon differences
in wealth and position, which determined the question of admis-
sion into the ranks of the upper classes, upon the industrial work
of the lower classes, carried out by slaves or freedmen who were
provisionally placed in charge; the latter were not permitted,
however, to form independent municipal organizations similar
to those which were afterwards developed by working men in
the Middle Ages. The town still held the ideal of the 4 'private
gentleman and capitalist 55 , and this class was obliged to remain
part of the city proletariat. Above all, this social order of the
Ancient World was determined by the fact that it was predomi-
nantly a coastal civilization, which only created towns as its centres
of organization for military and commercial reasons. The social
order of the Middle Ages, on the other hand, was based upon a
continental or inland civilization, which produced a vastly more
intensive and more richly differentiated agrarian, and then
industrial, civilization with a stable organization. Thus, in the
early days, even from the point of view of Society itself, there
existed no stimulus which might eventually give birth to the idea
of a stable, well-organized system of "callings 55 and of the division
of labour. Until the time of Constantine all the leaders of the
Church take this point of view; they regard all callings with
complete indifference, as "fate 55 or "destiny 55 , and they merely
criticize them without attempting to make concrete constructive
suggestions. From the third and fourth centuries onward, how-
ever, the social order of the Ancient World developed in the direc-
tion of settled organization ; military and official positions became
hereditary; compulsory associations of labourers were formed
within the food-producing industries, and some of these corpora-
tions resembled the later institutions of feudal times. This develop-
ment took place alongside of the gradual relapse into an economy
based on agriculture, the growth of an inland civilization, the
decrease in the value of money, and the State system of regulation
which tried to grapple with these difficulties. It may be that this
development gave rise to the Idea which often appears in the
writings of the Fathers of the fourth century— that is, of a necessary
social organization which would be mutually complementary.
This idea, however, was always entirely obliterated by their habit
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 123
of harping upon the equality of the Primitive State, and their
insistence on the restoration of equality by love and sacrifice,
which, if it cannot be done in the world, must be carried out in
the monastic life. The increasing esteem in which monasticism
was held was due to the very fact that it seemed impossible to
regard this social order — with all its difficulty, friction, conflict,
and reaction — as a system of c 'callings 3 5 ordained by God and
destined to contribute its part to the supreme religious meaning
of life. On the other hand, we shall see that the Middle Ages only
succeeded in fitting monasticism — that high explosive of all
social systems — into its social order to the extent in which it made
the monastic life one among several suitable “callings”. Once this
fact has been clearly perceived we have gained a very important
clue to the understanding of the difference between primitive,
mediaeval, and modern Christianity.
At first, under the influence of the eschatological outlook and
the Pauline conservative attitude, the duty of the Christian was
summed up in obedience to the exhortation, “Let every man
abide in the same calling wherein he was called 33 (1 Cor. vii. 20),
in which he was to maintain the Christian virtues. Thus Christians
took part in all the general conditions of life and industry, and
avoided only those callings which were impossible for them as
Christians; those who had lost their work for this reason were
cared for by the Church. In those stern early days, however, this
principle of excluding all unsuitable employments cut very deeply
into life. All offices and callings were barred which had any
connection with idol- worship, or with the worship of the Emperor,
or those which had anything to do with bloodshed or with capital
punishment, or those which would bring Christians into contact
with pagan immorality. This meant that Christians were debarred
from taking service under the State or the municipality; they
could not serve as judges or as officers in the army ; any kind of
military service, indeed, was impossible. The drama, art, and
rhetoric were also forbidden. At first, however, these restrictions
did not affect the Early Church very harshly, owing to the class
from which its members were drawn. It was far more deeply
affected by the exclusion from all technical occupations, from all
arts and crafts which had any connection with idolatrous emblems
or with pagan- worship : “Carpenters, stucco- workers, cabinet-
makers, thatchers, goldleaf-beaters, painters, workers in bronze,
and engravers — all these are forbidden to take any part whatever
in any work which is necessary for temple service.” That, of
124 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
used in temple-worship. Magicians and astrologers are tabooed.
A Christian could not be a school teacher nor a teacher of
science, since those professions were connected with idolatry
through the books they had to use and in other ways. The effect
of all this on social life was very evident. The Christians were
proud of this opposition between their way of life and that of
paganism, and they laid stress on the fact that they were able to
cause stagnation in trade. The pagans were aware of the danger ;
the famous report of Pliny emphasizes the economic desolation,
and Celsus complains that if such principles prevail the Emperor
will soon have no army and no officials, and that the Empire will
perish. Origen’s reply to this complaint is highly characteristic :
“If all Romans would accept the Faith they would conquer their
enemies by prayer and supplication, or rather they would no
longer have any enemies at all, for the Divine power would pre-
serve them.” “There is no one who fights better for the King
than we. It is true that we do not go with him into battle, even
when he desires it, but we fight for him by forming an army of
our own, an army of piety, through our prayers to the Godhead.”
“Once all men have become Christians, then even the barbarians
will be inclined towards peace.”
In such a situation, of course, it is clear that the question of
social reform could not arise. The Church had no idea that the
Christian criticism of Society ought to lead to an organic reform.
The leaders of the Church believed that God would prevent
Society from going to pieces. From the Christian point of view it
was sufficient to renounce the forbidden professions and occupa-
tions ; the rest of the social order could go on as usual. Indeed, the
Christians had already gained a position which entitled them to
be regarded, in the opinion of the writer of the Epistle to Diognetus,
as “the soul” of the world. Characteristically this writer adds :
“Christians are not differentiated from the rest of mankind by
locality, language, or customs. . . . They dwell in cities of
Greeks and of non-Greeks as their respective lot is cast, following
the native customs in dress and food and the rest of life.” The
dominant idea is not that of a “calling”, but of the lot which falls
to each individual. The point on which most emphasis is laid is
the “admirable and well-known system of the organization of the
Christian community ”. 613
61a od Diognetum, 5, 4: KaxoiKoVvxeg 8e itoAeiq 'EWr/viSag rs leaf fia.pfid.povg,
cog BKaozog iKXijpo'jOfj, icaf rot; iyycoptoig edeaiv d/coAovdovvxeg iv xfj eoOrjti
Kal diatTfl Kal ra> Aoivtp fiup Savpaarf/v Kal duoAoyovpfrwg Trapddo^ov ev-
detKvvvrai xm Kaxdcraaiv Trie lavxcov trnAt.Tr. lac.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 125
From the third century onwards the situation grew more diffi-
cult, for the Christians became more numerous in the higher
ranks of Society and in the more eminent professions, in the army
and in official circles. In several passages in the Christian writings
there are indignant protests against participation in these things ;
on the other hand, we also find attempts to compromise — argu-
ments designed to quiet uneasy consciences : “After all”, they
suggest, “these occupations are necessary for the social system,
and therefore people ought to stay in them . 55 Practically there
were many ways of evading and softening these rules, and prob-
ably also a good deal of connivance on the part of the authorities,
who saved the Christians from taking part in pagan worship, or
made things easier for them. In the provinces there were even
Christian Flamens of the Emperor- worship, who managed to evade
participation in the cult itself, and yet enjoyed the social impor-
tance of their position. These difficulties, however, only occurred
during the time of transition — that is, between the time when the
Church had become a force, and its recognition by the State.
From the time of Constantine these difficulties disappeared;
friction between Christians and pagans ceased, and all offices in
the State were thrown open . 62
The Church was now able to assert that all these occupations
formed an integral part of the social order; by participating in
them, therefore, Christians were upholding the order of the State,
of the pax terrena ; and since the external difficulties caused by the
taint of idol-worship had disappeared, Christians were now free
to take part in the army, and in official and economic life in
general. In all this, however, there was no idea of social reform.
The only practices which were still forbidden were rough games,
licentious drama, and pagan art ; these the Church desired to see
forbidden by law. The laws against the exposure of children, and
against sins connected with marriage and sex, were also made
more severe. The social system as a whole, however, was accepted
as it was, or, rather, it was still entrusted to the care of the State,
to which, it was felt, it naturally belongs. While the pre-Constan-
tine Church was hostile to the State, and did not envisage or
demand any social reform, holding itself entirely aloof from “this
e2 Harnack : Militia, 71 ff-, Bigelmair , 171— Lactantius still proclaims that the
office of a judge is forbidden to a Christian owing to the power of a judge to
inflict the death penalty. Bigelmair , 123. I do not know when these scruples
disappeared. Cf. also Ziegler; Gesch . d, christl. Ethik , p. 233 . In any case in the
Donatist controversy the Church herself demanded the punishment of death
for certain heretics. Gass , /, 228. With regard to the oath the position was
similar.
126 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
fleeting world”, and only taking part in it so far as it was possible
from the Christian point of view, the post-Constantine Church
had just as little idea of social reform because the reasons for
holding aloof from social life had disappeared and the existing
Imperial system seemed as immutable as ever. The process of
secularization was in full swing, but it would not be right to
regard this process simply as a mere participation in the life of the
world and fusion with its spirit. Practically, of course, that was
what it did mean for the masses, but genuine Christians and the
religious leaders still regarded the world with all its institutions
of property, labour, force, violence, and law as the result of sin.
In participating in the life of the world the Christian submits to
the consequences of sin, and within the secular organization he
remains in the position to which he is called. The question is
always whether a certain calling is permitted or not, or whether
it ought to be modified or restricted in certain directions. The
various occupations themselves, however, were hardly ever re-
garded as having a positive value of their own, or any inner
connection with religious values. Inwardly, the Church still
remained separate from the world ; on her part within her own
sphere she removed the consequences of sin by the exercise of love
and gentleness; and the more difficult this task became for a
Church which, as it spread, tended to become more and more
identified with the world, the higher rose the value of monasticism,
in which alone it was possible to redress the balance by a rigid
practice of Christian principles.
The idea of a Christian civilization, of a spirit which should
penetrate, mould, and renew the common life, was entirely
absent; for that very reason also there was no idea that the
Church might initiate any social reform. This, however, was not
due simply to the thought of the Church : it was also due to the
life of the day as a whole. The post-Diocletian Emperors did what
they could, but they were able to do nothing more than conserve.
The increasing financial difficulties of the State, and the con-
tinually increasing return to an economy based on agriculture,
combined with the many disasters and catastrophes which took
place, made it impossible to think of anything save actual pre-
servation. The social policy of the Church consisted simply in
supporting the State in this endeavour, and in placing her organ-
ization at the disposal of the State. Even if the Church had
wished to do differently it would have been quite impossible.
Further, the old customs had an immense tenacity, as is shown
by the fact that the Church never once succeeded permanently in
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 127
removing free divorce; i.e. divorce without a legal sentence, only
on the basis of a mutual agreement. Thus in her attitude towards
the social and economic organizations of the day the Church was
divided between submission to the conditions imposed by sin and
insistence on the monastic communistic ideal of love. Only
incidentally do ideas appear now and again which were to
dominate the thought of the later Middle Ages, namely, that
the mutual integration of callings and groups of workers is willed
by God, and that therefore they are to be regarded as the normal
Divine order. The same Chrysostom who utters these ideas would
like, however, to turn Constantinople and Antioch into a com-
munistic fellowship of love like the monastic life ; at the same time
he calms the fears of his wealthy hearers by assuring them that in
the present situation it will not be possible to carry out these
ideas' 32 * in practice. In this thought, and in that of almost all the
other Fathers of the Church, their realistic reflections on the
actual state of the world are constantly mingled with the Stoic-
Christian idea of the equality of the Primitive State.
Problem of Trade
One particularly difficult question in social life was that of
trade , 63 Since most Christians lived in cities, that is, in conditions
which assumed the existence and the use of money, they could
not dream of doing away with trade. They therefore accepted it
entirely ; even the monasteries sold the products of their labour,
and right into the fourth century the clergy lived on the proceeds
of trade and business; later on Church property was adminis-
tered on these lines, and it even enjoyed immunity from taxation.
Trade was, however, certainly surrounded by strong precautions.
From the ascetic point of view it was suspect since it assumed
pleasure in possessions and in gain, and from the point of view of
the principle of love it was suspect because it meant taking from
one to give to another, and enriching oneself at the expense of
others. The practices connected with trade on a larger scale such
62a See p. 185.
63 Cf. Brentano: Wirtschaftl. Lehren; Funk: Kirchengesch. Absch., II, 60 ff., £ins
und Wucher im christlichen Altertum ( Tubinger Theol. Quartalschrift , 1875), gins
md Wucher, 1868, Seipel , 162-182; Ratzinger: Volkswirtschaft , 222-26 g; Endemann:
Die Nationalokonomischen Grundsdtze der kanonistischen Lehre ( Jahrb . fiir National -
okonomie md Statistik , 1863) ; Bigelmair, 306-321. The subject has been treated
by many writers ; that is why here I only call attention to some of the main
points, Brentano allows himself to be too much influenced by the authors
whose sympathies are with monasticism. See also Max Weber: Agrargeschichte
(A/ ter turn), p. 120.
128 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
as monopolies, forestalling the market, money-lending and
usury, calculation and exploitation of the turn of the market, and
the various tendencies to seek one’s own advantage and to dis-
honesty increased moral misgivings. In theological theory,
therefore, trade was considered the most reactionary form of
earning a living, ethically lower in the scale than agriculture and
manual labour, and it was safeguarded by the precautionary
regulation that in fixing the price all that might be asked was the
costs of production plus the additional amount necessary for a
moderate profit. After the reign of Diocletian prices and taxes
were regulated, and the doctrine of an objective, just, and fixed
price was developed; this seems to have been due less to theo-
logical theory than to the practical course of actual events. All
that the theologians cared about was to prevent profits exceeding
the sum that was necessary for a man to gain a living. Priests,
however, were forbidden to engage in trade, so far as it became
possible to support them out of Church funds. All that this amounts
to, however, is an acknowledgment of retail business. Wholesale
business was still regarded with suspicion, and the Church forbade
the business connected with it which involved credit and interest ;
it supported its theory by appealing to the Jewish law (which
only permitted interest to be taken from aliens ) 633 and to the
Gospel; its main objection, however, was based on the feeling
that usury was an exploitation of distress which injured the spirit
of love. In all these expressions of opinion we see the point of
view of love and comradeship, which considers the taking of
interest within an intimate group an indecent and unloving
practice, a point of view which is usual “among brethren” in
groups which are undeveloped from the economic point of view.
There is still no hint of the theoretical scholastic argument of
Aristotelian economics about the unproductiveness of money. 63b
We can also understand the heated opposition of the great Church
leaders to usury when we remember how harsh was the system
of usury and of the collection of debts during a period when
Society was relapsing from an economic system based on money
into one based on agriculture. At that time, in fact, the system
of usury was a lucrative method of extorting money out of those
who had got into difficulties and of monopolistic exploitation; it
was not the stimulation of a process of production through
productive capital. Ideas of that kind were naturally alien to the
63a See above, p, 87 .
63b Sommerlad (p. 136) believes that in Gregory- of Nazianzen there is an allusion
to this. *
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 129
thought of the Church. Practically, these theological inhibitions
had very little effect; as long as the economic system based on
money lasted it resisted them quite successfully; it was always
possible to meet the anti-capitalistic theological arguments with
all kinds of Scriptural and other suitable reasons ; it was not in
vain that the Bible had said, “All things are yours 55 . All the same,
however, in principle these doctrines were quite important : they
meant that Christianity only permitted its followers to earn suffi-
cient to maintain life at a very moderate level of comfort; the
early Christians had no idea of an unlimited and increasing
productiveness, which leads to a general rise in the standard of
living. They regarded the world as ruined by sin, and yet good
at the same time ; but the good in it is merely the satisfaction of
the minimum of the external needs of life, by using the ordinances
permitted by God ; and this “minimum 55 fluctuates between a
moderate self-indulgence and an ascetic severity.
The Church and the Family
Hitherto, after an initial period of hesitation and restraint, as
it penetrated into the higher ranks of Society, to an increasing
extent the Church had accepted the existing conditions, and had
only attempted to regulate them at ethically doubtful points ; in
any case, neither before nor after did it attempt to transform the
social system ; the attitude of the Church towards the inmost
heart of the system, the family , 64 was, however, entirely different.
At this point the moulding of conditions was so closely bound
up with the contemporary value and conception of the life of the
individual that here the realization of the ideal meant that the
Church had to intervene and transform hostile circumstances.
The family with its patriarchal dominion of man and its com-
pulsory matrimonial right was, indeed, still regarded as a conse-
quence of the Fall, like all law and all compulsion which had
replaced the complete inner freedom of the Primitive State.
Others, however, argued that the manner of Eve 5 s creation
proves that the subjection of women is in the natural order of
things ; however, the overlordship of man was only established
when the curse was pronounced and Adam and Eve were driven
out of Paradise, Here, however, adaptation to the ideals of the
world is strictly limited. From the very beginning the Church set
before its members a high and strict ideal; it required them to
observe the ideal of monogamy, of chastity before marriage (for
both husband and wife), ®f conjugal fidelity, to exercise an ethical
64 See p. 185.
VOL. I.
l S o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
and religious discipline in the care of children, to reject all regu-
lation of the birth-rate by the exposure of children or by artificial
sterilization ; and after the Church was established by the State,
as far as possible this ideal was made a general principle of
Society, partly by the influence of the Church upon ecclesiastical
law, penitential order and discipline, and partly by its influence
upon the law of the State. According to the religious philosophy
of the Church, which was based upon that of the Bible, the
monogamous family is the basis of Society and of the State, which
has itself been formed by the expansion of the family ; among
pagans the idea of the family had become most confused and
perverted by its false views of sex, and it was radically purified by
the Christians in order to serve as the foundation of a purer and
better order of life ; it was, indeed, only able to submit to the
external forms of the existing marriage law amid continual conflict.
The question has often been discussed : How far can the alterations
in Roman matrimonial law during the Byzantine period be attri-
buted to Christian influence? There was “a perpetual struggle
between the highest ideals of Christianity — permission only of
complete marriage and that only as an indissoluble union — and
the motives of the secular legal system, which, indeed, was inter-
ested in the stabilization of the family, but which also had to take
into account the ingrained habits of the socially dominant classes”.
Among these customs was the Roman habit of concubinage, which
was always monogamous and quite public, and the contract
character of a legitimate marriage, which also implied that
it could be easily dissolved. Constantine forbade married men
to have extra-matrimonial connections, and made concubinage
difficult by making invalid all gifts and legacies from the man
to his companion and to his children. His Christian successors
attempted now and again to make it more difficult to dissolve a
marriage by limiting the reasons for divorce, and by confining
women more closely to their homes they tried to ensure the
greater purity of marriage. The effort to gain recognition for the
families of slaves was successful ; at the same time their growth
was furthered by the transformation of slaves, on economic
grounds, into serfs and coloni ; they were also allowed to expand,
and it was ordered that families of slaves were not to be separated
from each other in an arbitrary manner.
The Justinian legislation, then, was a compromise, largely
controlled by economic and State interests ; its main points may
be thus summarized : the permission of concubinage, with the
nearest approximation to legitimate marriage; the removal of
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 131
inequality of rank as a hindrance to marriage ; divorce made
difficult, with the strongest possible emphasis on the only reason
for divorce allowed by the Church, that of adultery, and thus in
principle the destruction of the freedom of contract in matters of
marriage; decree for the protection of slave marriages, while
slave children who are set free receive the inheritance rights of
legitimate children ; limitation of the patria potestas in favour of
the power of holding property of the children of the house, and
the capacity of the wife for the guardianship of her children; and
a better right of inheritance for the wife towards her husband,
and of the children in relation to their mother. The Church,
however, did not succeed in carrying through the strict doctrine
of divorce, nor the rejection of concubinage.
Alongside of this influence of Christian thought upon the idea
of the Family there were, however, the quite different ideas of
Christian asceticism and the ideal of celibacy. This dual character
of the Christian sex ethic was already apparent in the thought of
Paul, and under the influence of asceticism and monasticism it
led to a grotesque exaltation of sexual restraint, which again led
to the well-known ideas about the danger inherent in the female
sex and to a low estimate of women — these ideas certainly arose
out of the overstrained imagination of monasticism, and not out
of the thought of Christianity.
We must not forget the other side of the question, however, for
the state of virginity and the establishment of convents for women
gave a value and a position to the unmarried woman, which gave
women an influence and scope in spiritual matters, which again
worked out to the advantage of the position and understanding
of women. In any case, this development had an immense influ-
ence, sometimes it seemed as though the “virgin state 55 constituted
the very heart of Christianity. St. Methodius of Olympus, in his
“psalm of the Virgins 55 , transforms Plato's Symposion — the great
song in praise of the love of men and the metaphysical significance
of Beauty — into a conversation of self-denying virgins about
Divine things. Later monasticism penetrated into every part of
life, and as far as possible it controlled the lives of the clergy. The
Augustan legal penalties against being unmarried were removed
in its favour. We may conjecture with some certainty that the
terrifying and sudden increase of monasticism (as, for instance,
in Egypt) must have been due to reasons which were not all ideal,
and it is clear that that was not due to the spirit of the Gospel . 65
66 For the economic reasons, see Uhlhorn, /, 234 ; it is the flight from oppressive
taxation, forcible serfdom, and the inherited guild compulsion into freedom.
i 3 2 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
This phenomenon, however, was of general significance for the
early Christian Church in that it shows that its real spirit was
renunciation of the world, and not world reform, and that this
renunciation is simply the Gospel spirit of indifference to the
world in another form. It is, however, equally important to
recognize that alongside of this ascetic element marriage which
has been consecrated by religion is regarded as completely
justified, and is not considered as something merely incidental ;
it belongs to the Divine Order of creation. As the Christian ethic
developed further its characteristic element was not the ascetic
view of sex, but the fact that the sex ethic split into two parts, one
of which was ascetic and one of which consecrated the natural
instincts. In this respect the development of the sex ethic was
typical of the whole ethic of the Early Christian Church. It is not
a concession of original and essential asceticism to Nature, but
only in such a division of fundamental instincts could the Christian
Ethos, by embracing the conditions of life in the great world, live
freely according to its inmost nature. The heroism which admits
the natural basis of life, but which is willing to enter into fife
maimed for the sake of the supernatural end which will shortly
appear, was only possible during the period of the earliest struggles
and the earliest hopes, in small groups which lived apart from the
world. In the complicated conditions of the social life of the great
world these two aspects of the sex ethic diverged ; the one adapted
itself to the life of the world, the other became asceticism.
The Church and Slavery
Closely connected with the question of the Family is that of
slavery — at least, so far as domestic slavery is concerned . 66 Here,
in the sphere of close personal relations, the Christianized and
spiritualized patriarchalism of Paul is dominant; the responsi-
bility of the master for the physical and spiritual welfare of his
slaves, while the slave is exhorted to love and obey his master, since
he serves God and not man. To this extent, at least inwardly, the
nature of the slave relationship was neutralized by the claims of
the ideal. Outwardly, however, slavery was merely part of the
general law of property and of the order of the State, which
Christianity accepted and did not try to alter; indeed, by its
moral guarantees it really strengthened it. This applies very
clearly to slave labourers, whose lot, however, was already being
humanized in the natural course of events by the merg ing of
slavery into the colonate or serfdom. In the opinion of Christian
66 See p. 1 86 .
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 133
thinkers this right to possess slaves was due, like all law, to the
Fall, and since then it has been an institution which God has
permitted to exist. It was due originally to excessive human greed
— above all, to the curse of Noah on the irreverent Shem. “The
State is based upon the original misdeeds of humanity, and the
particular institution of slavery is founded upon the same basis of
error. Thus, it is true that it is only human laws which make
distinction between slaves and freemen, but, like all the other
contrasts which make up the State, the institution of slavery is a
rod of discipline in the Hands of God, and in this sense namely,
the law of the State, which keeps the slave in bonds, is also ap-
pointed by God; thus it may not be transgressed so long as it
does not demand from the slave anything which displeases God.”
To that St. Augustine with his predestinarian views adds the
argument of the natural inequality of mankind.
Thus the Christians changed nothing whatever in the laws
affecting slaves. They protected slave marriages, urged non-
Christians to set their slaves free, or to let them buy their freedom
because they thought that the religious welfare of the slaves
was imperilled ; they themselves encouraged the manumission of
slaves as a “good work” involving self-denial and the renunciation
of one’s possessions ; later on, however, the majority of the slaves
were set free for economic reasons. The Church granted the
principle of religious equality to its fullest extent to slaves ; later,
when the process of secularization had begun, and merely secular
standards of social value were erected, this ideal was modified ;
it was then felt to be too great a menace to the stability of the
general social order, and Gregory the Great revoked the previous
laws which had permitted slaves to hold office in the Church. As
a legal institution, however, even with all its barbarous penalties,
slavery still existed. The Christian Church allowed it to endure,
without question, right on into the Middle Ages— it was only
largely modified by the process of economic evolution — yet the
Church was fully conscious of the inconsistency between this
institution and the inner freedom and equality which was the
Christian ideal. This forms a most typical illustration of the
attitude of Christians towards the world; they renounced the
world, and yet they compromised with it, and they did not, and
could not, dream of making any changes in the social system.
The Church and the Practice of Charity
At the same time, however, the Church was conscious of the
harm and suffering caused by this social system, and she was not
i 3 4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
at all willing to adapt herself to it— with all the suffering it caused
— without protest. Her reaction in this particular, however, did
not take the shape of social reform, or of organic change : it was
simply and solely the work of charity . 67 That was her way of
healing social wounds, and in point of fact it constitutes a brilliant
chapter in her history. In the early centuries it was directed in-
wards towards creating a haven of vital mutual aid within the
pagan environment. Later on, in times of great distress and
misery, which affected the masses of the people, the Church lifted
the burden from the State on to her own shoulders, often creating
her own centres of social service and charity.
“It is the aim of the Church to give parental care to the orphan,
to be a husband to the widow, to help those who are ready for
marriage to make a home, to give work to the unemployed, to
show practical compassion to those who cannot work, to give
shelter to the stranger, food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty,
to see that the sick are visited, and that help is forthcoming for
the prisoners.” In addition, there was the help given in times of
public calamity, the burial of the dead, and the help given to the
churches amongst themselves. In the early days all this took
place through the Church itself, when bishop and almoner knew
everyone personally, and were thus in a position to centralize
their work, and yet at the same time to treat everyone as an
individual. Church discipline was a help against abuses, and
distress which the Church could not touch was met by an extra-
ordinary exercise of private charity. In the post-Constantine
period this charitable activity broadened out to meet the growing
social need and the rapidly increasing number of Church members,
by the erection of institutions, hostels for travellers, and hospitals,
by undertaking to feed and control masses of people living in the
towns — by turning the ecclesiastical power of jurisdiction and
right of giving asylum to the use of protecting the suffering,
alongside of which the activity of the cloister and an infinitely
varied private philanthropy were exercised. In this book, how-
ever, we are not so much concerned with these particular
illustrations as with the spirit and temper of the whole and its
relation to the whole world situation. Here there are three points
to which I would call your attention.
( i ) The aim of this charity was not the healing of social wrongs,
nor the endeavour to remove poverty, but the revelation and
awakening of the spirit of love, of that love which Christ imparts
and in which He makes known to us the attitude of God Himself.
67 See p. 1 86.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 135
Above all else, the Church desires to show love and to awaken the
response of love. The relief of distress which she actually achieves
is the result of this spirit, not her first intention, but this happy
effect itself is a proof of the Divine origin of this new principle
of love. Poverty is still highly honoured, as a method by which
we reach the knowledge of God; indeed, it is often voluntarily
induced by giving away all one 5 s possessions. At the same time,
the relief of distress extends no farther than securing the minimum
of existence. The spirit of restraint and simplicity of life are not
to be given up ; rather this spirit ought to be encouraged both in
those who give and in those who receive. Both almsgiving and
the method of charity ought to be regulated by this standard. It
is only the emphasis laid on the religious nature of this love as
the revelation of a spirit, combined with the exaltation of poverty,
which explains the fact that this charitable activity very soon, and
quite naturally — as the earlier ethic of love shrank into one of
“good works 53 — was able to merge itself in ascetic achievements,
whose aim was no longer the welfare of others but the salvation
of one’s own soul. At first, however, love pressed forward and
conquered distress, and the new religion of love was extolled
because by means of this love it naturally overcame social distress
and suffering, and still more that beyond the sufferings them-
selves it conquered the spirit in which these sufferings were felt
to be too oppressive. Then, however, it immediately became a
branch of asceticism and self-denial.
(2) The relief of distress which was thus the result of love was
deliberately restricted to philanthropy, to voluntary contributions
for parish relief, and to the free exercise of private charity. The
aim was a new spirit, not a new social order. In the post-Constan-
tine period certainly the Church permitted her institutions, her
legal system, and her bishops to receive privileges from the State,
and she placed at the disposal of the State authorities, and then
of the legal administration, her own methods of charity and
discipline, her authority and her registers, but she did not seek to
urge the spirit of social responsibility upon the administration;
preferring to use it for her own ends, merely requiring from the
State support for her own charitable activity. In so doing, how-
ever, she renounced the one method by which permanent reforms
might have been secured. That, however, was not an accidental
short-sightedness and lack of insight on the part of Christian
thought, but it arose in principle out of its attitude towards the
world. The Church still felt that in spite of the presence of so
much that is good in the world, which is permitted by God, the
x 3 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
world still remains the realm of sin and of Satan, the place of
pilgrimage and of preparation for Heaven ; thus there is no need
to think of a positive improvement of this world at all — indeed,
the fundamental spirit of religion is more secure if such questions
are entirely ignored. The services which the Christian State
renders to the Church do not affect this principle one whit.
The question whether, with such principles, it will ever be
possible to overcome social distress, even to the extent of securing
a minimum of existence, is one which the Church, with her
confidence in God and her own absolute self-assurance, will not
allow to be broached at all.
In the earlier centuries, when better economic conditions pre-
vailed, the Church did, indeed, succeed in overcoming distress and
want; in the mass misery of the later period the Church often
struggled to overcome it with immense resources, but in vain;
then the Church came to the conclusion that all this misery was a
punishment from God and a sign of the imminent end of the
world.
(3) The third point is this : That a social reform of this kind,
based on love alone — in so far as it wished to be social reform at
all — was only possible, both practically and spiritually, in small
and intimate communities, with the pressure of external opposi-
tion to hold them together, in which, to some extent at least, its
members were drawn from the same social class. When all this
ceased, and in the absence of external opposition the Church
became co-extensive with the whole of Society and bore in her
bosom the differences of all, then the work of charity became a
different thing altogether. Relationship between the brethren
became abstract and general, and giving became Impersonal —
to the Church, to institutions. Charity became depersonalized;
the bishops allowed it to be carried out by their officials on the
basis of the registers ; in the hands of wealthy bishops and land-
owners it often resembled the old Roman liberality. On the other
hand, private almsgiving was frittered away in indiscriminate
charity. In this atmosphere the whole practice of charity was
changed from being a means of help to others into a practice of
ascetic self-denial, into “good works 55 which acquire merit for
oneself and for others, into penances for sin, and into a means of
mitigating the fires of purgatory. This tendency was encouraged
not only by the fact that the original impulse of charity had turned
into asceticism, but also by the fact that the very real, even
though restricted, social interest which this original impulse
contained found it impossible to realize dts ideals in these enor-
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 137
mous and unwieldy Christian communities and under impersonal
mass conditions. The aim and meaning of charity became warped,
and in spite of an ever-renewed emphasis on the spirit of love, and
in spite of some magnificent achievements, Christian philanthropy
lost its earlier spirit, which was closely connected with the original
motive of overcoming social distress, of equalizing the distribution
of wealth, and of the increase of the spirit of fellowship within the
Church itself. Thus hospitals, convents, and episcopal works of
charity lasted on into the Middle Ages as very important agencies
of civilization ; at the same time, however, they were also ascetic
institutions, for which it was worth while making sacrifices, since
such actions are also the means of acquiring personal merit and
of thus ensuring personal salvation. The idea of equalizing social
conditions within the Church itself for love’s sake has entirely
disappeared. This, however, only shows that the social significance
and power of achievement of this Christian philanthropy in general
were extremely limited. In spite of the fact that in its own way this
philanthropy was absolutely necessary and important, it did not
provide any solution of the social problem in general ; indeed, it
only desired to offer such a solution to a very limited extent,
because it only regarded the social problem itself as the healing of
the most external distress and suffering by assuring a minimum
of existence ; beyond this the Church simply exhorted mankind
to submit to the sufferings of this sinful world and accept all the
trials of this “our earthly pilgrimage”. The Church was also
careful to point out that that “minimum” was not even a right or
a claim, but a gift of love, to be received in love and humility.
The main point was the creation of loving relationships in the
spirit of love, not the giving of material help.
The result of this teaching in the softening and spiritualizing
of human relationships was, in the nature of the case, very
extensive and important, but it did not effect any organic reform.
That was prevented by its conception of the State and the world.
To what extent the assertion which is frequently made, that the
softening of the hard Roman Conception of property” was a
result of this Christian influence, is true or not, I am not in a
position to say. Wherever I have read this assertion it has never
been supported by evidence. From the legal point of view it seems
much more- probable that this statement is not in accordance
with the facts. From the ethical point of view the attitude of the
Early Church was rather one of misgiving about the right to hold
property at all, combined with the religious duty of charity, than
a sense of the common ^responsibility of Society for its members,
1 38 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
and thus a restriction of the individual's right to hold property-
in the interest of the whole. This latter viewpoint assumes that
already there is in existence an interest in the development
of Society as a whole, but it was precisely that element which was
absent from the thought of the Early Church.
Rise of a New Class
In its philanthropy the Church undertook the immense task
of trying to heal the social evils of a social order whose problems
were constantly increasing in difficulty. The activity of the Church,
however, did not constitute an interference with this social order ;
it had no vision of an organic reorganization of Society on a new
basis. In this respect the one result produced by Christianity was
its own actual reality as a Church. As such it meant the creation
of a new class within the social order, and it thus introduced
an important element into the organization of the State, which
was becoming more and more divided up into classes. From the
time of Constantine the bishops and the clergy under them were
recognized publicly and legally as a special class, and succeeding
Emperors granted them increasingly more and more privileges as
a class, so that the highest rank of the episcopate was on the same
level as the highest dignitaries in the State and the leading
politicians. The fact that these offices were not hereditary meant
that the State, through its influence upon appointments, could
exercise a continual control over this powerful class, and could
even utilize it for its own ends. The prestige and privileged
position of this class were heightened by various causes : special
class privileges, the right to acquire property, the bestowal of
grants and immunities, the oversight of the property belonging to
pagan temples and to heretics, the right to accept legacies, the
reversion of the private fortune of priests to the Church if there
were no direct heirs, and the immense zeal in giving which was
displayed by sinners and by those who desired to* earn Heaven.
An immense system of “dead hand" came into being, and, above
all, the Church had acquired an immense amount of landed
property. But although the development of this new class meant
a great deal to the State, which was developing increasingly upon
“class" lines, and although it brought to the State new forces for
its use as well as some dangerous and uncertain elements, and
although this development of this special class was most important
for the coming mediaeval period (that is, for the transformation of
an ancient democracy and of the bureaucratic idea of a world-
state into the monarchical system, with* its ranks and classes, and
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 139
its social system based on agriculture), to the Early Church itself,
so far as the introduction of Christian ethical ideas into social life
was concerned, it did not mean a great deal. Outside the charitable
activity led by the bishop, carried out by numerous officials,
combining the care of the poor in their own homes with that in
institutions, the clergy had not very much scope. The bishop was
supposed to feed daily with the poor, and he did so very often,
the clergy too were to be poor and without ostentation, an
example of self-sacrifice to others, and in a great many instances
they lived up to this ideal. Church property was to be used for
the poor and for public ends. But the influence of Christian ideas
on the Imperial legislation was quite insignificant. In this direc-
tion the new class achieved nothing (and perhaps it did not wish
to achieve anything), beyond the extirpation of pagans and
heretics and the gaining of privileges for the Church. Everything
else the Church regarded as her own affair, and here she continued
the old tradition of alienation from the State and from the
existing social order. She brought with her from the old co-opera-
tive situation the habit of a far-reaching exercise of arbitration
by the bishops in civil disputes and an ecclesiastical handling of
criminal cases. On the ground of parity the former was officially
conceded both to the Christian and to the Jewish Patriarchs ; one
could demand from the State the enforcement of episcopal
awards of arbitration and bring a great number of legal affairs
before the episcopal courts, until Arcadius and Honorius abolished
this competitive legislation. The principles upon which this
verdict was based would have given us an insight into the
Christian-Social outlook of that period, but unfortunately I have
been unable to find out anything about them. The chief point,
however, is that this competitive legislative activity was not a
social reform but a relic of the continuance of the Church as a
state within the State, which meant a continued aloofness from
the State and from Society in general, and it was for this reason
that the Emperors felt obliged to do away with it. Criminal
legislation had been administered on similar lines, but here the
State was far less inclined to make concessions. Even where
criminal charges against the clergy were involved, the Church
only succeeded for a brief period in reserving them for her own
courts. All that the Church was able to do was to gain certain
privileges for the legal treatment of the higher clergy, and an
indirect influence by the development of the institution of media-
tion and by influencing the execution of the penalty and the
exercise of mercy; she also brought strong pressure to bear upon
Ho THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the judges by threatening them with ecclesiastical punishments.
All this affected the practice of the law in many directions;
Christian ideas modified it in many ways ; it also served to pro-
tect persons who were marked out by the Church as meritorious,
either on account of their orthodoxy or their partisanship,
against the law and power of the world ; it called forth, therefore,
also the harshest inhibitions from the Emperors. In spite of all
this, however, the Church did not exert a humanizing and
softening influence upon the legal system as a whole; on the
contrary, in the Christian era it became increasingly cruel and
hard ; the collapse of the social order demanded harsher methods,
and the visible influence of Christianity upon the law consisted
merely in the introduction of dogmatic intolerance and religious
persecution into the legal administration.
The social position accorded to the bishops had one result,
however, which was far more important than the others which
have been previously mentioned. They were given public judicial
authority in all matters which concerned the care of the poor,
and social welfare as a whole. To a State which was itself no longer
able to deal with the problem of social distress, the bishops
seemed the most suitable persons, since they had the ancient
practice of the Church in these things behind them and were also
in possession of vast wealth in ecclesiastical property.
“The bishop was recognized by the State as the patron of the
poor and the wretched. Thus, in a situation characterized by the
lack of any State system for the care of the poor, by harsh and
cruel legislation (especially in the law of punishment), by the
utter wretchedness of the masses, by ceaseless wars, and from the
fifth century onwards by the increasingly frequent and terrible
Barbarian invasions, the Church and the bishops were able to
make the most beneficent use of the splendid privileges which
were granted to them by the State . 35
Thus, for instance, the right of sanctuary lay in the hands of
the Church; it was transferred from the pagan temples and the
Imperial statues to the Christian churches, and it was bound up
with the episcopal right of mediation. This right, however, was
now only enjoyed by orthodox Christians, and in many ways it
became an ecclesiastical means of power to be used against the
State authorities, who therefore tried to restrict it in various ways ;
in particular, it was prevented from being used too much for the
protection of the economically weak, like debtors and slaves;
thus the ecclesiastical right of sanctuary was really less humane
than the pagan law.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 141
The Church also waged war on the traffic in girls, and against
excesses in the conduct of brothels ; she strove to suppress the
custom of the exposure of children and undertook the care of
foundlings ; the Church also supervised the control of punishment
in the prisons, especially in ransoming prisoners of war ; in this
case, however, the Church was unable to prevent those who were
thus set free from being forced to work on great estates which
were unable to find sufficient labour. It was part of the duty of
the Church also to ease the lot of the slaves, and it did this by
obtaining the right which decreed that the freeing of a slave
both before the praetor as well as before the bishop could lead
legally to full Roman citizenship. The Church exhorted the
faithful to free their slaves as a “good world 5 of asceticism, and
undertook to protect those who were set free from being enslaved
once more. The Church was, however, unable to free her own
slaves, because they were part of Church property and as such
were inalienable, an inconsistency characteristic of the whole
situation. This inconsistency also suggests that the ecclesiastical
system of land ownership can scarcely have been administered on
the lines of Christian “model farms 55 . Rather everything suggests
that this property was administered according to the principles
of production of those days, without any special reference to
Christian considerations. The only Christian “model farms 55 were
the monasteries, which, however, had broken with the principles
of the world altogether.
The social function of the new class was, therefore, very impor-
tant, and under the protection and privileges of the State it gave
Christian ideas a very fair opportunity of exercising their influence.
In the main, however, it was only a corrective and a softening of
existing conditions : it merely modified some of the worst features
of the existing social order, while the ecclesiastical love of power
and the exclusiveness of Christianity added fresh severities. The
Church was simply another institution alongside of the world
and of the State. The very fact that by the isolation of the clergy
as a special class the Church was a distinct social phenomenon,
was due to this idea of detachment from the world ; it meant that
the Church and the clergy had secured a position alongside of the
world, but it did not mean that the clergy were able to dominate
and influence civilization as a whole.
This is why, on the other hand, in spite of all their service to the
whole, so much emphasis is laid upon the contrast between the
clergy and the world ; that, too, is the reason for the constantly
renewed and explicitly stated command to the clergy to take no
142 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
part in State business or in official public work. This also is why
clerical celibacy was required for purely ascetic reasons, and not
from any idea of making men more able to dominate in the
political and social sphere, and this also accounts for the fact that
monasticism was recommended as the nursery for the higher
clergy, in contrast to the secular clergy who were drawn from the
ranks of the aristocracy. Although this politico-social attitude of
the clergy provided an important basic element for mediaeval
ideas, there was still no trace of the characteristically mediaeval
idea that from their position of influence they might claim
their right to the spiritual leadership of civilization as a
whole. 67 *
The Church and Science
In contrast to this widespread detachment of the Church from
the world we must, however, admit that at one point there was
an almost complete fusion of the Church and the world. It is,
however, characteristic of the whole situation that this did not
take place within the sphere of social life, but in a purely intel-
lectual realm — in that of science. This fusion with science intro-
duced into the Church the social theories of ancient speculation,
and, in so doing, indirectly it had an extremely powerful influence
upon her own social outlook. It is, indeed, not difficult to under-
stand why this fusion took place — science was the element which
had the least connection with the existing order, and in the
system of the division of labour it had produced the fewest fixed
forms and embodiments of its own theories ; it was, indeed, the
one element which had almost entirely outgrown the conditions of
life in the ancient world. If we look into the question more closely,
however, here also we discover that fundamentally the Church
has the same attitude towards the world as elsewhere; in the
sphere of science, however, far more than in the social sphere,
tendencies from late antiquity were present which exerted an
influence far beyond the ancient world and its previous way of
life. The Church had left the strongly rhetorical system of educa-
tion and culture untouched, contenting herself with a few pre-
cautions. In questions that affected the general world outlook,
however, she exercised a severe discrimination. Christian writers,
scholars, and teachers only appropriated for their own use those
elements in the religious and ethical philosophy of late antiquity
which had an affinity with Christianity and a similar outlook
on the world. The culminating act in this process, which was so
6Ja See p. 187.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 143
significant for world history, was the fusion of Christianity with
Platonism and with the religious element in Stoicism.
Platonism provided Christianity with its unique Gospel of
Redemption, with a universal theoretical foundation of mysticism :
in the great process by which the world comes forth from God
and returns to God, through the Logos or the knowledge of
God, Christian redemption is assigned the significance of being
regarded as the completion of this process.
To the Christian ethic, which was clumsy both in its terminology
and its conceptions, and concerned only with obvious happenings,
Stoicism gave both a theoretical foundation and a terminology :
the moral Natural Law as the dominion of the Divine Reason
over passion and desire in man, and the unification of mankind in
the common possession of the Divine Reason — that constitutes
the heart and the positive content of the Christian ethic, which is
innate in man, then formulated in the Decalogue, and which
has finally been proclaimed afresh in the teaching of Christ;
all that had to be added was only the special “Evangelical
Counsels ’ 5 or the higher Christian virtues, as well as the Christian
system of the means of grace, and the reinvigoration by grace of a
will which is either weak or wholly corrupt.
The world-principle of the Logos, who became man in Christ
and founded the Church, and on the other hand the moral Law
of Nature, which was given with the Logos, contained in the
Law of Moses and in the universal moral teaching of Jesus, forms
the support for the doctrine of perfection which aims at the
future life; those are the two fundamental conceptions and
cardinal points of all scientific theology and ethics, in which it
differs from the more Biblical and popular Christianity of the
lower strata of Society, which attached itself especially to the
religious myth, and on a large scale accepted the ancient faith
of the people. 6 7b
The acceptance of ancient science did not, however, go farther
than this. Empiricism was passionately rejected, and natural
science was ignored. The Physiologus and Topograpkia Christiana of
Cosmas Indicopleustes are examples of a view of Nature which
is a mixture of Biblical ideas and fantastic fairy-tales. History
and criticism likewise were left out of account. Their view of
history was represented by monkish legends with their grotesque
miracles, by the primeval Scriptural history embroidered with
additions from secular historians, with the four world-empires
67b For the difference between? these two sections of the population see my
article, Der Begriff des Glaubens, Religion und Geisteskultur, igoj .
144 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the Book of Daniel which began with Nimrod and lasted to
the present time.
In this opposition to the empirical exact sciences Christianity
joined forces with the specific tendency of declining antiquity,
and helped to hasten the decline of critical and purely positive
knowledge. In the scientifically educated upper classes its religious
ideas were fused with Stoicism and Platonism, i.e. with the
dualistic, mystical, and ethical-humanitarian forces, and there
arose a Christian philosophy and a Christian rhetoric and
sophism; in the lower classes the myth continued to flourish,
mingled with elements of the ancient popular religion and its forms
of worship . 68
A more detailed study of this question belongs to the history
of dogma. For our subject in particular the first and most im-
portant point is only the assimilation of Stoicism into Christian
thought — the acceptance of the “Stoic Natural Law, or the
Divine Law, or the Law of Nature 55 . For this acceptance of
Stoicism was not merely the means of fixing and defining the
ethical conceptions in general within Christianity, but it was also
the means of placing the world, that is, the State, the law, and the
system of social functions, in the right relation to the existence of
the Church and the community of the redeemed.
Up to this point nearly everything which has been described
had to do with the interior order of the Church, with social
organization as an essential part of its own life, and the con-
ception of the State and of the world only emerged to the extent
in which both of them affected the inner life of the Church ; now,
however, we have to deal with the relation of the Church to the
State as a whole and on its external side. It is precisely in this
development, however, that we shall see the extraordinary
significance of the ethic of Stoicism, its conception of Nature and
of its law. Harmonizing already with the thought of Paul, the
Apologists and the Alexandrians took this conception and made
it the foundation of the Christian ethic in close connection with
the Logos idea. From the time of the Fathers of the fourth century
this idea comes more and more to the front, together with the
doctrine of the corruption of the Natural Law by the Fall, as we
have already seen. Above all, it was this idea which finally made
it possible for the Church to come to terms with the State, and it
also provided her with a theoretical reply to the question of her
relation with the world. The service which Neo-Platonism rendered
to theology was rendered to ethics, and above all to social philo-
68 See p. 187,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 145
sophy, by Stoicism. Not until the later Middle Ages shall we see
the Neo-Platonist categories expand in social theory also beyond
the categories of the Stoics . 69
Christianity and the State
Thus we have now arrived at the last of the great social
problems of Christianity; the relation of Christianity to the State.
In studying the relation between Church and State it is
possible to go along two lines. We can inquire how far the funda-
mental theory of sociological behaviour and feeling, as Christ-
ianity has evolved it in reference to the religious object, has
possibly, consciously or unconsciously, also been carried over into
the other sociological types? To what extent Christian individual-
ism has awakened the sentiments of freedom, equality, and self-
respect in the State, in Society, in the community, and in the
family? And also how far its universalism of love has also intro-
duced Christian patriarchal sentiments into other relationships?
To what extent humility and love may have coloured human
relations in general?
So far as the pre-Constantine Church is concerned it is, of
course, impossible to give more than a negative reply. All that
can be said Is that the old sociological fundamental theories
which had grown up in the city-state and in a militarist atmo-
sphere were broken up by it and that the ancient conception
of the State was destroyed.
So far as the post- Constantine Church is concerned the reply
to these questions would entail a far greater knowledge of her
legal and social history than I have at present at my disposal.
With the increasing connection between the Church and the
State we might, indeed, expect to find traces of an influence of
this kind. It seems to me, however, that in this respect the influence
of Christianity was extraordinarily slight. The institutions and
the intellectual culture rooted in the old ideas were too ancient,
too independent, too radically remote, to be able to assimilate
new impulses, while the Church, on the other hand, was still too
much concerned with the next world, still too much agitated by
the heat of conflict and victory, still inwardly too detached to be
able to weave ideas of that kind Into the inner structure of the
State. On the contrary, we might rather speak of the strong
sociological influence on the Church and its institutions exerted
by the Roman corporation law, and by the continued effect of
the ancient jus sacrum . On the other hand, we might attribute the
> 69 See p. 188.
K
VOL. I.
I 4 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
increasing religious glorification of the Crown and of its officials,
the whole Byzantine influence, less to ecclesiastical than to old
pagan Oriental influences ; and when the Western Empire fell,
and churches and bishops often took over the functions of the
State, this was only due to actual necessity and an expression of
authority, but it was not an inward approximation of the life of
the State to that of the Church. Moreover, in all this there was
no trace of a tendency to political individualism, even though
from the point of view of science and aesthetics, and perhaps also
in family life, the individual and personal element was more
strongly developed ; this was, indeed, in harmony with the whole
late Hellenic development, which the Church absorbed into her
own life . 70
Thus in the Early Church we can only look for a theoretical
adjustment of the relationship between the Church and the
Kingdom of God on the one hand, and the State and the world on
the other, as of two inwardly essentially separate magnitudes
which, owing to the existence of this essential separation, are
prevented from mutual interpenetration . 71 As we have already
seen clearly at various points, this problem had now become a
peculiar dual problem : on the one hand, there is a widespread
acceptance of the world and its institutions, in accordance with
the fundamental principles laid down by Paul, and, on the other,
the rejection of the world and of the State, on principle, as the
fruit of sin and of the demonic realm. The ruling idea which lies
behind this is that the State, and the social order in general,
actually constitute the “world”. The conception of a sinful, lost
world over against a Church which alone can offer redemption
became more and more the governing idea in the State and the
social order ; this tendency was increased by the growing necessity
for a practical understanding between Church and State. After
science had been partly rejected and partly Christianized, and
the private forms of life had been Christianized and the heathen
laws had been abrogated, the substance of the “world” became
the idea of the State pure and simple. The “world”, in the sense
in which the word is used in late Judaism and primitive Christ-
ianity, and then later in the whole of the Ancient Church, is,
indeed, not a cosmological conception at all ; it is a conception
composed of political, social, and historic elements. It means
paganism, the Gentiles, the world outside Judaism, which by
deterioration and wickedness has become a kingdom of demons,
and this idea was intensified in the great Empire of the Caesars
70 See p.191. “ 71 Seep. 191.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 147
with its Emperor-worship. Wherever this worship took place the
writer of the Christian Apocalypse also saw the throne of Satan,
the Lord of this world. Since, then, the infant Church had to do
mainly with the Roman Empire, the Caesars became the rulers
and representatives of the “world”.
Christianity described herself as a /kcuAaa, and therefore her
counterpart, the world, was also conceived as a fiacnAela, which
is plainly manifested in the Emperor, in the Imperial Law, and
in the worship of the Emperor. The world becomes a “king-
dom”, and it is thus the sum of the existing laws and ordinances.
For a kingdom is the support of law and order; and law and
order covers the whole order of Society. The problem of the
attitude towards the laws is the problem of the attitude towards
the world. The world is alobv ovros or saeculum , i.e. it is that
period in history which precedes the Return of Christ. This idea
has nothing to do with the metaphysical-cosmological conception
of the world, of the mundus or *007*0?, although the expressions
are used rather loosely. The Early Church rejected the Gnostic
doctrines, which taught that the world and its sin had their
origin in matter and the world of sense; the doctrine of the Old
Testament was retained — that the Creation was good, but that
the “world” is the result of the Fall, of the corruption of the will,
and a Satanic delusion. The State also sprang from this source,
and thus it comes under the uniform and essentially unchangeable
principle of the “world”, together with all the institutions of
marriage, labour, property, slavery, law, and war; all the later
changes, which the Christians, of course, also observed — the shifting
of the world empire from the East to Rome, then the break-up of
the ancient Roman tradition and the orientalizing of the Empire
from the time of Severus,* the new constitution and administra-
tion of Diocletian — all this did not alter their theory. Even when
Christianity was recognized by the State it made no difference
so far as the State was regarded simply as the State, and not as a
servant, to be directed, hallowed, and purified by the Church, as
the body of which the Church is the soul. That which applies
to the “world” applies equally to the State: in both there is a
mingling of good and evil. 72
This dualistic attitude towards the “world”, therefore, was
always the same, and was held by the same people; it is not
divided up among different teachers, but it is peculiar to them
all, only the emphasis varies in its component parts. Nothing will
be rightly understood if that fact is overlooked, and if shades of
* I.e. Septimus and Alexander. — Translator. 72 See p. 191.
148 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
opinion are taken to imply differences in theory; this applies
with peculiar force to the great theologians of the Christian
Empire, and to their attempts to formulate fresh theories. Indeed,
this statement also applies to the fundamental statements of Paul,
who urges the believer to walk through this world as “a stranger
and a pilgrim 55 , and yet teaches that “the powers that be 55 are
ordained by God for a good purpose. After the first sanguinary
encounters with the power of the State, in the Apocalypse there
is an outbreak of fanatical hatred of the State in which Jewish
apocalyptic and a Messianic hatred of paganism are combined,
and this hatred of the State broke out now and again in various
forms; but it disappeared after Montanism. The main develop-
ment proceeded along the lines laid down by Paul. Then, how-
ever, the dualistic tendency which this point of view contains
came out very clearly: on the one hand, acquiescence in the
existing order; on the other, the sternest opposition to the State,
which reveals its demonic origin in the worship of the Emperor,
in the refusal to allow Christians to form their own associations,
and in its cruel condemnation of the Christians. The emphasis
varies with the fluctuations between peace and persecution; it
was also affected by the temperament and outlook of the Christian
leaders, but the dualism was there all the time : it was maintained
even during the hardest times of savage persecution, with their
glorious martyrdoms, which, in spite of all that Christianity had
in common with many tendencies of the later period in the
Ancient World, revealed a unique spirit of heroism and creative
faith. Christians regarded their sufferings either as trials and
penalties, or as a stimulus to faith and courage ; for either purpose
God uses the State as His instrument; but while they held this
view they did not give up the one idea, namely that, on the whole,
the order of the State is good, and that it comes from God. When
the State finally gave up the struggle and absorbed the Church
into its own organization, the unjust laws and those tainted with
idol-worship were abrogated, and the Church then was able to
recognize the goodness of the order of the State more fully. But,
just as the leaders of thought in the Church had never allowed the
idea of the goodness of the State to disappear in times of persecu-
tion, neither did they permit the evil and sinful aspect of the State
to be overlooked in the brilliant period which had just begun to
dawn.
This dualistic viewpoint was a discord, which, in some way or
another, had to be resolved. From the practical point of view,
of course, it is quite intelligible. It expressed (a) the original
the Foundations in the early church 143
indifference of the Gospel towards the world ; ( b ) the enhancement
of the opposition between the Gospel and the world, for purposes
of apologetic, till it became a contrast between a sinful and lost
humanity on the one hand, and a redeemed and holy humanity
upon the other ; (c) lastly, the ascetic-dualistic point of view which
changed this contrast between the world and the Gospel into a
contrast between the physical world of the senses on the one
hand, and the super-sensual, other-worldly spiritual realm on the
other.
Another very important aspect of this question ought to be
taken into account, i.e. the compromise with the world, which
was practically forced upon the Church by its size and its numer-
ical increase, as well as by the way in which it became inter-
woven with the common life. To some extent this compromise
was justified by that element within the underlying principle
which held the world to be a Divine creation, and which always
maintained that a minimum of the secular conditions of life was
necessary as a basis and means for the actual ethical and religious
values. Everything will depend on the form this “minimum” will
take and on its range of influence. This was the question which
divided Christianity into two great camps; the main line of
development, and the official doctrine of the Church extended
this “minimum” more and more, without giving up the “super-
naturalism” of the Church theory; monasticism restricted this
“minimum” as far as it was humanly possible to do so; it defi-
nitely renounced its share in the life of the great world, and it also
allowed a lower degree of secular morality to exist at the same
time. The inconsistency was intelligible, but it was intolerable,
and the Church leaders, though they may have been one-sided,
would not have been the keen and great thinkers that they were
if they had not attempted to find a theoretical solution of the
problem.
Since the. State, with its laws, constitutes and represents the
whole social system, the problem became one of the nature of
the “laws”. In the earlier literature this problem was settled by
reference to the two statements of Scripture: “The powers that
be are ordained by God” for the maintenance of the civil order,
but that when conflict does arise, “We must obey God rather than
men”. These propositions, however, did not solve the whole
problem. Firstly, because they were purely dogmatic statements,
without any general foundation in theory, clearly connected with
religious thought; and, secondly, because in all instances which
went beyond a mere clash with the laws which supported pagan
t 5 o the social teaching of the Christian churches
worship, or which forbade Christian associations, they were
inconclusive.
In spite of the Pauline formulae, however, the Christian writer
and “prophet” Hermas placed the laws of the City of God and
those of the city of this world in sharpest opposition : “Wilt thou,
on account of thy fields and of thy other property, abjure thy
law and live according to the law of this city? (i.e. this world).
See thou that it be not thy ruin to deny thy law. . . . Since thou
art dwelling in a foreign land do not strive to obtain more than
is necessary, and just what is sufficient and make thyself ready,
in order that when the lord of this city banishes thee, on account
of thy opposition to his laws, thou mayest leave this city, and
travel to thine own, where thou canst live according to thine own,
without suffering ill-treatment in great joy.” The Epistle to the
Hebrews also makes a very clear distinction between the city of
God and the city of this world. 723
Influence of Stoicism on
the Doctrine of the State
As soon as the worst struggles were over and Christianity had
to adjust its organization to the legal social system in general,
the need was felt for a general theory of the basis and validity
of the “laws” which the Christians could accept. In this connec-
tion it was the Apologists who, in addition to fusing the ethics
of Christianity and of Stoicism, were also the first, at least to some
extent, to bring the laws of the City of God into harmony with the
laws of the city of this world. 7 2b The Stoic idea of Natural Law,
which the Apologists regarded as identical with the Christian
moral law, provided the way out of the difficulty. As we have
already seen, the Stoics, and the jurists whom they influenced,
regarded positive justice and law as the result of that Natural Law
and natural justice which issues from the Divine nature and from
Providence, and the validity of the laws was based upon the
degree in which they contained the impress of this Natural Law.
Since to educated Christians this Law of Nature seemed to be
part of the order of creation, the content of the Decalogue, and
an integral part of the Christian moral law, and also of the
Logos who was incarnate in Christ, this “Natural Law” also
seemed to them to be a directly Christian doctrine. Once this
was granted, however, it was clear that both a general founda-
72a Hermas , Sim. i., Hebr. II, i€> The description of the world and of the Church
as a irSAig or civitas also means two forms of legislation, or even two different
customs. Cf. Weinel; Stellmg, pp. js and 63. 72b See p. 192.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 151
tion and criterion by which to test the validity of the “laws”
had been established. Whereas, in the earlier days, the Church
had thought of law almost exclusively in terms of the Law of
Moses, and possibly also of the new Law of Christ, while the
laws of the State were left to their own devices, now both in
theory and in practice, it was regarded as a Christian duty to
undertake the criticism of the laws of the State, with the result that
these laws were accorded a limited extent of recognition, and
were thus fused with the Christian law, while those which ap-
peared to be tainted by sin and the demons were, in part at least,
rejected.
After the Apologists had given a somewhat hesitating lead,
the great thinker Origen spoke out clearly and plainly on this
subject. He found that the pagan controversialist Celsus had
reproached the Christians for adopting the ideas of the Natural
Law of the Stoics and incorporating them into the legal system of
the States ; Celsus also summoned the Christians to submit to this
law, expressing his fear that their hostility to the world will lead
to the desolation and impoverishment of the State. Origen
accepted the idea of Celsus in its entirety; then, however, he
emphasized the incongruity between the existing positive laws and
the rule of Natural Law and natural justice. So far as the laws of
the State agree with the latter they are good and Divine ; so far
as they do not, they are not Divine and they ought not to be
obeyed. “One may only obey the laws of the State when they
agree with the Divine Law; when, however, the written law of
the State commands something other than the Divine and Natural
Law, then we must ignore the commands of the State and obey
the command of God alone.” The prohibition of the Christian
“associations” and the summons to idol-worship are contrary to
the Divine and Natural Law, and resemble the laws of the
Scythians and the Barbarians rather than the laws of justice. In
the last statement the assumption is characteristically expressed
that Roman Law must correspond to the Natural Law, and that
the Roman laws against the Christians are really Barbarian
and unworthy of the Romans. This way of thinking inaugurated
a method of testing, limiting, and establishing the laws, which
was gradually followed by all the Fathers of the Church. In con-
nection with Cicero, Lactantius ardently defended the same
doctrine, and all the Western Doctors as well as the Justinian
Code took the same point of view. In the period after Constantine,
when the State was Christianized, this point of view became
general, and the final acceptance of the State was based upon
152 the SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the ethico-juridical theory that its laws proceed from the Divine
Law of Nature, which is identical with the Decalogue . 73
This, however, seems to simply that too much had been con-
ceded, for this view seems to lead to the deification of the State.
Of course, that was not the view of the Doctors of the Church. To
the extent in which the Church accepted the State and the social
order in actual practice she was also forced to feel, and to main-
tain very fully, her inner hostility to this Law of Nature, which
was fundamentally opposed to the social ideal of the Church in
slavery, trade, force, and harsh laws, as we have already seen in
particular instances. And the Church did take this line with
great decision. The ancient protest, however, was couched in new
terms ; here also the Church followed the example of the Stoics,
who, for their part, in spite of their theory that the existing laws
are based upon the Natural Law, were likewise unable to conceal
the contrast between the existing order and their humane social
ideal, and who therefore had sought and found a way out of this
difficulty. They found their solution in isolating the primitive
period, or the Golden Age, from all the ages which follow. In the
Primitive State the Law of Nature prevailed completely, and
there was no slavery, no force, no contrast between rich and poor ;
some attained an actual perfection of freedom and equality, and
others a rather childlike and innocent normal ethical standard
which still needed to be developed. It is only selfishness, envy,
violence, and bad laws which have produced the present situa-
tion, in which the Law of Nature is only expressed in a clouded
and disfigured form. Despairing of carrying through their social
ideal in the present, they placed the Golden Age in the past, and
only laid upon the present age the responsibility of adapting the
actual laws as far as possible to the Law of Nature.
With one accord the Christian Doctors now adopted these
ideas, and combined them with their Scriptural ideas of a period
of primitive perfection ; the line of division between the two
strands of thought, however, remained quite clear ; the Scriptural
doctrine of the Primitive State presented one pair of human beings
only, but the ecclesiastical doctrine of the absolute and complete
Law of Nature which was present in the Primitive State assumes,
like the Stoics, the existence of several human beings ; and the
Church was only able to combine these two ideas by teaching that
if it had not been for the Fall humanity would have developed
along these lines. The lack of logical cohesion also appears in the
fact that the Stoic ideal of the Primitive State was characterized
73 Seep. 193.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 153
mainly by freedom, equality, and absence of force, whereas the
ecclesiastical doctrine of the Primitive State (when it simply
follows its own impulses) emphasizes mainly religious perfection,
the love of God, humility, and the state of grace. For the Fathers,
however, the idea was so releasing and illuminating that they,
nevertheless, adopted it with great vigour. All social institutions
which, from their point of view, were intolerable were due to
Original Sin; the patriarchal dominion of the male, private
property, slavery, and finally the State (which constitutes the
essence of the whole) — all are due to sin. The stories of the
Curse of Adam, of the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, of
the Patriarchs, and of Cain, Ham, and Nimrod were naively
incorporated into the Stoic philosophy of history. The Roman
Empire is regarded as the successor of the Babylonian Empire,
and as the support of the existing laws it will endure until the
Return of Christ . 74
At this point, however, it looked as though too little had been
granted where formerly too much had been conceded. Christian
thinkers felt that they ought not to lay too much stress upon the
influence of original Reason in the development of the laws, in
spite of the absolute opposition between existing conditions and
the original equality and freedom. Out of this difficulty, however,
a third decisive idea was evolved, which then completed the
argument : the element of Natural Law in the present order is not
merely the effect of a Reason whose clarity has been dimmed,
but it is the transformation of the Law of Nature, which, according
to the Divine Will, took place after the Fall. Once lawlessness,
inequality, avarice, and violence have penetrated into Society
the Law of Nature can only become evident in the form of an
order of law and compulsion, and thus react against corruption.
It is precisely the legal and compulsory character of the laws
which protect property, organize and control the masses according
to an idea of law, which emphasize inequality by the existence of a
slave class, which chastise Barbarians and the enemies of civiliza-
tion by means of war, which under these conditions constitutes
the essence of the Law of Nature. It is at once a result of sin and a
remedy for sin. It ensures order, and the pax terrena , by the only
reasonable methods which are still practicable, and, in accordance
with this aim, the positive law can be regulated, at least according
to this secondary form of the Law of Nature. All the institutions
of property, slavery, patriarchalism, the State, and the Army
may, and must, exist as an expression of the Divine Reason ; in
74 See p. 194,
i 5 4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
harmony with its intention, however, they may only be used as
a means of preserving public order and as a remedy for sin.
This argument enshrines the important idea of a relative Natural
Law, corresponding to the conditions of the general sinfulness of
humanity, which exist alongside of the absolute Natural Laws of
the Primitive State. This is the general doctrine taught by the
Fathers, naturally with varying shades of meaning. Augustine
also expressed this idea, and it was at the basis of his thought,
although, for reasons which will be explained directly, he empha-
sized it less than some other ideas; here also, as well as in his
doctrines of original sin and of predestination, he was to some
extent an isolated theologian. But with the Isidorian Decretals,
and the explicit statements of Gregory the Great, the doctrine
was transmitted to the Middle Ages as a fundamental doctrine.
At this point the doctrine of the Church was so closely related
with that of the Stoics that we may almost infer that there was
some direct connection between the two. The Stoics, with their
similar assumptions, encountered exactly the same difficulty of
regarding the existing State as the expression of the Law of
Nature, and yet of being obliged to distinguish this present Law
of Nature from the perfect Law of the Primitive State. After
Cicero had already suggested that submission to ordered govern-
ment was a remedy against lawlessness and wickedness, Seneca
developed the implications of this idea in detail, and he exalted
this reaction of the Law of Nature against sin as a method of
progress. Among the jurists traces of this way of thinking appear
even in the corpus juris itself. Whether in this instance the Church
Fathers also borrowed from this source we cannot say with any
certainty, for lack of explicit evidence. After they had adopted
the Stoic presuppositions the discovery of this latter doctrine
would have been almost inevitable, and that the inference could
be drawn independently seems to be proved by the fact that it
appears in Irenaeus. In any case, the Fathers gave their own
special impress to this idea by emphasizing the theory that these
institutions of the relative order of Nature were not merely
remedial in character, but that they were also a direct punish-
ment for sin.
The advantage of this point of view was that it enabled the
Church to justify the harsher aspects of the positive law which
exceeded the purpose of acting as a remedy for sin ; indeed, this
argument was used to defend the perversions of this Natural Law
in general, which had always been a difficulty to the rationalism
of the Stoics. Under certain circumstances this led them towards a
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 155
strongly realistic conception of positive law, and of the historic life
of the State, which it had been far more difficult to rationalize. But
however far St. Augustine, for instance, went in this direction, the
basis of Natural Law itself was not, on that account, discarded . 75
Theocratic Conception of Imperial Authority
In all this, however, there is still one question which has not
been answered; although it was of no practical importance at
first, it gained increasing significance as time went on. This is
the problem of the nature and the right of the authority from which
the laws of the State proceed, and, thus, of the now dominant
relative Natural Law. In point of fact this authority was, of
course, the Emperor. But the ethical interpretation, basis, and
limitation of this Imperial authority was an open question. In the
days of the Early Church it was regarded as sufficient to refuse
to worship the Emperor, or to obey laws which were contrary to
the Will of God, while in everything else the Christians did all
they possibly could to compensate for this by honouring him
highly as the authority appointed by God, against which the only
permissible form of disobedience was that of suffering and passive
resistance. If, however, the “laws” could be traced back to the
Law of Nature, then the authority which enacts the laws must also
derive its power from the same source. In actual fact the Stoics
and the jurists took this line of argument; they affirmed the
democratic origin of the Imperial authority through the trans-
ference of the popular rights to the Princeps, and regarded the
Imperial power as justifiable to the extent in which it main-
tained the intention of this transmission of authority, i.e. care for
the common weal. This idea of the derivation of the Imperial
authority from the Law of Nature through a free and equal
people was handed down, by tacit consent, from one generation
to another, and it was even accepted by the Justinian Code, and
was echoed by the Fathers of the Church, whose sympathies were
Roman. This introduced into the ecclesiastical literature of
Natural Law sporadic elements of the democratic, “social con-
tract” idea, as the basis of the power of the State, at first, however,
without any practical significance. For they were merely common-
places of Roman thought, learned reminiscences from philo-
sophical and juridical literature ; at first there was no kind of
inward connection between this democratic idea of Natural Law
and the entirely inward and purely religious permanent Christian
idea of personality; this connection was only achieved at all by
- 75 See p. 195.
S 5 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
radical Calvinism. At this point, in the question of the validity
of the Imperial authority, the idea of Natural Law, even that of
the purely relative Natural Law, was thus not developed to its
logical conclusion by the Fathers. The reason for this lay doubt-
less in the ancient religious feeling which accepted the life of this
world as God’s ordering and appointment, and always regarded
the Imperial authority quite simply and unquestioningly as
permitted by God, and therefore as an established fact. In this
refusal to agree to rationalize Natural Law there is a trace of the
conception of God as an arbitrary power who ordains the powers
that be just as He chooses. This idea was strengthened by studying
the way in which the kings were appointed in the Old Testament;
another factor was their repugnance to the logical result of the
idea of the Law of Nature, i.e. that if an Emperor disobeys the
Law of Nature it would be right to depose him. That, they felt,
would be nothing less than rebellion against the actual order
which God has willed and established. Even godless Emperors
must be tolerated, not indeed because their authority is based
upon Natural Law, but as the punishment of God for sin. Thus
at this point the old rationalism of Natural Law asserts itself
against the old religious irrationalism, and its result is the Divine
Right of Kings.
The authority of the Emperor comes from God— even under
pagan rule — and still more that of the Christian Emperors.
Augustine, therefore, the Father of the Church who has laid
most emphasis upon sin and its punishment, and who also taught
predestinarian irrationalism, accepted the view of the State as the
result of Natural Law, it is true ; but he defined it more narrowly
than the other Fathers — he wished to allow scope for the argument
that godless Emperors are due to an “act of God”, and serve as a
punishment for sin; he also argued that the ruling authority
should be rejected, on ethical grounds, in so far as it does not
allow itself to be guided by the Divine justitia. Thus in his legisla-
tion Justinian proclaimed the Divine Right of Kings as well as
the idea of the democratic transference of authority to the Em-
peror, which was based on Natural Law. From this early Christian
viewpoint, however, the “Divine Right of Kings” means that an
Emperor can be Emperor either “by the grace of” or “by the
wrath of” God, just as the people deserve to have a good or a
bad Emperor. Thus this theory of Natural Law which enabled the
Fathers to accept the social system of the ancient world and to
weld it into a unity, broke down on the question of Imperial
authority, th epotestas temporalis . At this point the jurists also were
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 157
uncertain; on the one hand, they argued that the Imperial
authority was derived from the will of the people, while, on the
other hand, they defended the theory of the purest absolutism.
If we are to understand the idea of the Fathers of the Church on
“Divine Right 55 , we must not forget the influence of this absolutist
theory. The Emperors administer the laws, it is true, or they
should do so, according to the standard of relative Natural Law,
but for their part they do not base their authority upon that fact,
but upon the fact that their position is a Divine appointment.
Therefore the problem of the recognition of the State is not the
same as that of the Imperial authority itself, and the “Natural
Law 55 theory of the State differs from that of the validity of the
Imperial authority.
The question of the authority of the Christian Emperors,
indeed, bristles with an extraordinary number of problems.
For since the Imperial authority is derived directly from God, it
has a special duty in its relation to the world or the State, on the
one hand, and to the Church or the “organ of salvation 55 , on the
other. But its peculiar position does not mean that the Imperial
power is unlimited ; it means that it ought not to be limited from
below, i.e. from the standpoint of Natural Law. Undoubtedly,
however, it may and must be limited from above, by the same
God who gave it its power; that, however, means that the Im-
perial authority must be limited or directed by the institution in
which God is incarnate — that is, by the Church. In all secular
matters both the laity and the clergy must obey the Emperor, but
in all spiritual things, in questions of dogma, of the law of the
Church, of ecclesiastical property, of ecclesiastical legislation, the
law of God is paramount. Indeed, the secular Imperial power is
only considered as divinely justified to the extent in which it is
purified and hallowed by service to the Church and submission
to her authority. The Imperial power secured protection and
privileges for the Church, but in the actual relationships of the
State there was no idea of a Christian State or of social reform.
Since the Imperial authority gave the Church freedom for full
and unfettered activity, the Church herself consecrated, hallowed,
and spiritualized the whole great structure of secular aims, by the
love of God which is inwardly detached from the world, and yet
tolerates it outwardly. Only thus can the Church give to the
elements of Natural Law within the State a divine strength and
depth ; making the secular justitia of the legal system into the
perfect jusiitia of a piety which uses the world both for renuncia-
tion and for the exercise of love. The Imperial authority, however.
158 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
must give the Church the opportunity of exercising this influence ;
it must place itself at the disposal of God. This is the theocratic
idea as it was first formulated by the Church, which was the
result of the sociological development of the religious community,
and which was now extended into the sphere of political and
social life. The latter theory, as is well known, was worked out
pre-eminently by Augustine in his great work. But it is less often
recognized that he assumed and maintained the former theory
as well. The unadjusted conflict between these two points of view
also explains the ambiguous character of the work of this great
man, which (for that very reason) also transmitted dualistic
tendencies to the future. Theocracy and Natural Law mutually
hallow the State ; what one cannot do the other can, and in any
case the Emperor holds his office first and foremost in virtue of
his Divine Right and his position of theocratic dependence. The
State, however, still remains an epitome of the “world ”. 76
The Church and her Dualistic Theory
in the Social Realm
The Church, therefore, had at her disposal two entirely different
theories to guide her in her attitude towards social and political
problems ; the theory of relative Natural Law and the theory of
theocratic absolutism. With the aid of the theory of relative
Natural Law she learned, on the one hand, how to tolerate the
actual social situation — which in itself was opposed to her funda-
mental principles, but which the very fact of her sense of sin and
her orientation towards the future life led her to depreciate — and,
on the other hand, how to regulate it according to her theories
of Natural Law. The theocratic absolutist theory enabled the
Church to adopt the position that the Emperor and the State
might act freely in earthly matters, but that in everything which
concerned religion and the Church, the Church must have the
upper hand. These theories are the clearest proof of the impotence
of the attitude of early Christianity towards all social problems.
From the sociological point of view the fundamental ideas of an
individualism and a human fellowship based wholly upon man’s
relation with God may have had an immense and incalculable
influence. More and more, however, the attitude of the Church
towards social problems coincided with that of the State, as the
support and the substance of the whole life of Society. Over
against that, however, there was the aloofness of the Church from
the world, and its opposition to unredeemed humanity ; in these
76 See p. 196.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 159
circumstances all that the Church could attempt to do was to
Christianize the State and the world indirectly, by ascribing
their origin to the Law of Nature, which was identical with the
Law of Moses and the Law of Christ, but which, owing to the
Fall, was now only a relative Natural Law. All that this “Christian-
ization” amounted to in the end was that everything was left
outwardly exactly as it had been before.
The other solution was that the theocracy of the ecclesiastical
social organization also dominated and controlled the temporal
power of the Empire. This meant in practice that the Church
secured her own unity and stability with the help of the State,
that above all she used the authority of the State to make her
own power supreme within her own sphere, but that the social
life itself was left to the care of the Emperor. Only by means of
this theocratic principle did the Church attain a unity in doctrine
and in Church order which she would never have attained without
Constantine — a unity which was enforced by the power of the
State, and not by the inherent logic of the ideas contained in the
doctrine of the Church. By means of this principle the Church
built up her constitution, acquired property, and gained her
legal power which she used to complete and correct the legislation
of the State. In all this she was simply attending to her own
immediate interests ; social life in general was left In the hands of
the Emperor and the law. Within the ancient world the Church
never achieved, never desired to achieve, and never could have
wished to achieve the development of a uniform Christian
civilization. This was due to two factors : (a) to the influence of
the attitude of detachment from the world which prevailed in the
Early Church; and (b) to the overwhelming influence exerted
by the presence of two parallel independent social structures —
the World Empire and the Universal Ghurch. The “Holy Roman
Empire”, which was influenced by the theocratic idea and yet
erected upon the basis of relative Natural Law, was the result
of all these inconsistencies, and therefore it neither was, nor
desired to be, an inner unity.
But in these ideas which it had evolved out of its own experi-
ence the ancient world was able to transmit to the future those
elements which the Middle Ages was to use In the development
of a uniform Ghristian civilization. Executive powers, which do
not possess the vigour and the wealth of the legal organization of
the ruling power, but which are young and which have grown
up with the Church itself, will adapt themselves more easily to
theocracy, and thus the 'whole, at least theoretically, can be
160 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
- conceived and felt from the point of view of theocracy. On the
other hand, in the presence of new, less stable, and less developed
social conditions it was easier to attribute their origin to the Law
of Nature, and the relative Natural Law could more easily be
drawn into touch with the Christian moral law, and thus social
life could be more simply and completely conceived as Christian
and regulated in a Christian way. On the one hand, Theocracy
will strike its roots far more deeply, while, on the other hand,
the Christian Natural Law will be able to push upwards with
greater vigour. Indeed, the fiction of a Christian Natural Law,
which makes it possible to regard the State and Society as though
both were ordered by one Christian law, will be the means through
which it will become possible to speak of a Christian unity of
civilization at all, and it is this alone which makes men able to
believe in such a possibility. This Christian Law of Nature also
will likewise provide the daughter churches of Western Catholi-
cism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, with the means of regarding
and shaping themselves as a Christian unity of civilization. The
Christian theory of Natural Law — in which the pure Natural
Law of the Primitive State, the entirely opposite relative Natural
Law of the fallen State, the positive law, which often included
the greatest abominations, and that true goodness which, in spite
of all these ideas of Natural Law, is the only source of the supreme
power of the theocracy, were in continual conflict — as a scientific
theory it is wretchedly confused, but as a practical doctrine it is
of the highest importance for the history of civilization and of
social evolution — it is the real ecclesiastical doctrine of civiliza-
tion, and as such it is at least as important as the doctrine of
the Trinity, or other fundamental doctrines . 77
The Christian relative Natural Law was the final result of a
process created by the Church through the following stages:
first of all she gradually modified that indifference towards the
natural basis of life which characterized the Gospel, owing to
the great enthusiasm and heroism with which it lived only for
eternity ; then the Church tolerated the natural basis unchanged
as she found it, as the product of relative Natural Law; and
finally, from the time of the Middle Ages, with the changes in
the general conditions of life, she regarded the natural basis of
life as instituted by Providence for the purpose of the Christian
Church. The sociological, purely ethical, and religious funda-
mental relationships of the Gospel then become an integral part
of the life of the Church, embodied in obedience to the Church
77 See p. 197. "
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH x6i
and in the sense of the unity of the Church, while the social and
political elements are embodied and assimilated by means of the
Christian theory of the Natural Law of the Church. In this
Natural Law, however, there still remains the root idea of Stoic
rationalism — that is, that God is related to the universe as the soul
is to the body, and the rational equality of all beings endowed
with reason ; from this root rationalistic reactions will arise, until,
in the seventeenth century, when they have developed their full
power, they will destroy the ecclesiastical civilization itself. The
unity of civilization was only possible on a basis of theocracy and
the Christian Law of Nature.
Concluding Summary
This, however, is an anticipation. But it is a necessary digression,
in order that we may realize clearly the significance of the con-
ceptions which have been gained through the struggles which I
have described. The sociological energy of Christianity was
narrowed down to the Church ; social and political life was
accepted by the Church, and in the future it will also become
plastic in its hands. This result seems, however, to suggest that
the early ideal of the Gospel, the anarchy of the faith which is
responsible to God alone, of the infinite worth of the free soul,
and of the “shedding abroad 55 of the Love of God in the love of
the brethren, had disappeared, or at least that it had been hidden
and silenced.
This primitive ideal of the Gospel, however, was not dead ; it
lived on in ideas and in institutions, although it had certainly
become greatly changed in the process.
It lived on in the Church itself, in the ideas of sanctification
and of brotherly love, which were bound up with sacerdotal and
sacramental ideas, and yet were always capable of a vital release.
These ideas were also effective within the limits of the ecclesias-
tical organization, and they manifested a continual tendency to
cut themselves free from it. The Church, as the living extension
of the Incarnation, had, indeed, replaced or enlarged the New
Testament, but it had not discarded it. Also the spirit of inner
detachment from the world, which had never been given up, in
spite of all the ideas of Theocracy and Natural Law, kept alive
the feeling that the sociological ideals of the pure religious faith
were felt to represent something which differed from the world
entirely.
The primitive ideal of the Gospel lived on in the idea of the
Primitive State and of the absolute Natural Law, which kept
VOL. I. L
1 6 a THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
continually before the minds of men the ideal of freedom, of
union with God, of equality, and of love to God and in God. It
is true that in this ideal of the Primitive State the idea of equality
has been drawn from the Stoics, and that it is conceived in an
abstract and rationalistic way, and fused with the idea of righteous-
ness. This is the reason why time after time this ideal of the
Primitive State gave birth to theories of Natural Law, of com-
munism, and of Socialism, in a religious guise, and why with the
emancipation of the modern Law of Nature, the latter expects
that the idea of primitive man as the Church conceives him will
support these ideas.
But in addition to these Stoic-rationalist ideas this doctrine
of the Primitive State contained in the concrete religious ideal
of primitive man so much that is religious that for a long time
the influence of this Stoic admixture was not too dangerous.
Further, it was precisely the predestinarian Doctors of the Church
who, with an intelligent instinct, emphasized, over against the
rationalism of a general equality, the difference between human
beings both in the Primitive State and in their essential dis-
position — an anticipation of the opposing tendencies which were
destined to break away from each other at a later time . 78
Finally, the primitive ideal of the Gospel lived on in monasti-
cism. In its origin monasticism is a very complex phenomenon,
but in its practical effect it was simply the sanctuary into which
the early one-sided Christian ideal had fled for refuge. Just as the
primitive Gospel ideal with its heroism had taken little account
of the natural basis of life and ignored the values of civilization
altogether, so monasticism with its asceticism reduced the value
of the natural life and denied the values of civilization altogether.
As the Gospel ideal could only be fully realized in a really in-
timate group of individuals, and found its first natural expression
in the small group of the early disciples, so monasticism reproduced
these conditions by artificial methods. But although monasticism
represented the complete ideal, so far as it could still be felt and
realized, in a splendid and overwhelming manner, it had no
desire to make those who could not embrace this state feel that
they could not be Christians. The relation between the Church,
the laity, and monasticism was still undefined. But monasticism
assumed the main responsibility. It took charge of all real Christian
Social work, so far as there was, and could be, any such work at
all, and thus prepared the way for its future incorporation into
a complete Christian civilization. Experienced in the discipline
78 See p. 198.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 163
and the “cure” of souls, and also concerned about the salvation
of ordinary people, the monks laid the foundation of that indi-
vidual pastoral care which replaced the catechumenate of the
Church, which had become formal and superfluous. They also
created the beginnings of Christian schools— a phase of service
which the Church, in her detachment from the world, had
entirely overlooked. For the grammar and rhetoric schools of the
Roman world they substituted schools of an entirely religious
character, which, imitated later on by parish and cathedral schools,
also educated lay people. The monks made the scientific labour
of thought about Divine things a means of spiritual discipline and
of union with God, together with the virtues of asceticism. Thus,
in their development of the ascetic and transcendental features of
Stoicism, Cynicism, and Platonism they were both true Christians
and true philosophers. The laity, therefore, could find in the
monastic literature that true knowledge which they could not
find in the unrest of the world. The monks lived a life of strenuous
labour, while as great communistic productive organizations they
still held all things in common. They gave the laity, when neces-
sary, training in labour, exhortation to work, and works of mercy.
The idea of free labour, and the demand that a “livelihood”
should be based upon labour, was first clearly recognized in the
monasteries, and from them it first spread into the world. Thus
precisely through their asceticism, and by the seclusion of their
small groups, the monasteries were the essential supporters and
radiating centres of that which we may now call Christian
civilization, of a knowledge, labour, and charity which are based
upon and bound up with a most intimate love of God. In spite of
all their eccentricities and crudities, in their organization by the
great Fathers of monasticism they formed the advance-guard of
“Christian civilization”, and from this point of view they became
increasingly ^important. 79
Only now is the picture complete. In the Bible, in the absolute
Law of Nature, and in monasticism the old sociological ideals lie
ready to exert a new spiritual influence upon the whole of life.
In the Church, through the concentration of the Divine power in
priest and sacrament, these ideals have been ecclesiastically
united, and the creation of the Church is the real great socio-
logical achievement of this period, whose inner fundamental
theory does not penetrate too deeply into the common life; so
far its influence was mainly felt in family life. Through the ideas
of theocracy and relative Natural Law social problems have also
79 See p. 199.
1 64 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
been mastered, in that, although the State and Society remain
outwardly and legally just the same, in their hearts men are quite
remote from and hostile to them, without however feeling urged
to alter them, and using their institutions for future salvation and
for the general security of life. These are the social doctrines of the
Ancient Church ; they also contain both the germ of the new social
doctrines of the Middle Ages, which will be quite different, and
also the germ of ideas, which will lead to the disintegration of
these same social doctrines at the beginning of the modern
period.
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 165
NOTES TO CHAPTER I
10 (p. 40.) On this point in general compare Uhlhorn: Christliche Liebes -
tatigkeit in der alien Kirche 2 , 1882; Harnack : Dogmengeschichte z , and Harnack : Mission
und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten 2 , 1906 ; the latter
contains the best material known to me for the social history of Christianity.
See also Moller von Schubert: Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte , / 2 , I9°44 Duchesne:
Histoire ancienne de Veglise , 1907; Weizs acker: Das apostolische £eitalter z 3 1902;
Knopf: Das nachapostolische £eitaltet } 1905; Th . Keim: Rom und das Christentums
1881 ; Gierke: Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht , ///, 188^ in which the Christian
idea of a “corporation” is excellently developed. Cf. also the address of Adolf
Harnack at the Protestant Social Congress in 1894: Die ev.-soziale Aufgabe im
Lichte der Kirche {Reden und Aufsatze, 1904) . — The whole question is excellently
handled by P. Wendland in his book Die hellenistisch-romische Kultur> i9°7> in
which, however, the social history is deliberately left out of account.
In all these books the underlying idea is that they are dealing primarily with
a religious movement. There are, however, also books which claim that
Christianity is a purely social movement. Pohlmann: Gesch. d. antiken Sozialismus
und Kommunismus , 1899-1901 , wished originally to describe Christianity as the
result of ancient Socialism. He tried to prove that in its hope of the Kingdom
of God it placed at the disposal of the philosophically resigned and actually
suppressed Socialism of the Imperial period the psychological motives and
energies which would have gone beyond the powers of purely politico-social
and philosophical endeavours (//, 583-617). With this suggestion, however, he
let the matter rest, and did not undertake to carry the subject out in further
detail, possibly because he found that it was less easy to prove this than he had
expected. His theory is based upon a misconception of the idea of the Kingdom
of God, which has nothing whatever to do with any politico-social renewal ;
upon this point more will be said shortly. Kautsky naturally also makes the same
assumption in his contribution to the Geschichte des Sozialismus in Einzeldarstel-
lungen , /, i, 1893 ,pp. 16-40. Following the theory of “historical materialism”, he
can only see in Christianity a communistic movement which arose out of the
social conditions of the Roman Empire, a reaction against the poverty and
misery of the masses, which was caused by the squeezing of the citizens out of
the possession of land and manual labour, by the competition of plantation
and factory work based on slave-labour, a situation which is openly expressed
in the feeding of this ragged, dklassd, unemployed proletariat by the State.
Elements of an “enthusiastic” nature sought a way out of this misery caused by
ancient Capitalism through miracle ; Christ the Redeemer was to introduce the
ideal communistic society by means of a Divine renewal of the world, for which
the Apocalypse in particular serves as a proof, which, however, bears no com-
munistic features at all ; its main characteristic being hatred against the sinful
world and the Roman Empire. Out of this Chiliastic “enthusiasm”, which,
however, soon faded, there proceeded even for the life of this world a practical
communistic effect. This resulted in the Christian proletariat of the cities,
which for that reason remained connected with the life of the towns, and which
in the economic state which it had reached could not renounce private property ;
it was a communism based purely on consumption and on sharing one’s
possessions suggested by the example of the State, in its feeding of the starving
and unemployed. The means of production were changed into means of enjoy-
ment and distributed to the poor. Hence the thoroughly inconsistent character
1 66 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of this communism, which was based upon~private property, which for that
reason was a failure, and only continued to exist in theory in the declamations
of the Fathers of the Church, among whom Chrysostom is singled out for
mention. Christianity thus feels obliged to allow the social order to remain
unchanged; it only enlarges it by the addition of a new ruling class, the clergy
with their ecclesiastical possessions in landed property, a development which
it is not difficult to understand when we realize how weak was the democracy
which was based upon an “enthusiasm” of this kind. It is the Imperialism of
the bishops. When the hierarchy is formed the Catholic Church arises, and
thus “out of a communistic institution the most gigantic machine for exploita-
tion which the world has ever seen comes into being” (p. 34). In the states
formed by the migrations of the Germanic tribes, with the disappearance of
a money economy the widespread misery of the Ancient World came to an
end, and the Church, through her connection with the feudal system and the
manorial estates, became a purely political institution, the central point for the
ruling class. Then the charity of the ancient communism disappeared ; all that
remained was merely the pleasure in giving away that which cannot be eaten,
which is found in all social systems based upon a natural economy. When, in
the later Middle Ages, modern Capitalism arose, which produced afresh the
problem of mass misery and want, the communist movement also arose anew,
this time, however, not among a mass of wretched unemployed proletarians,
but among free wage-earners who are indispensable to production. The
Church then ceased to represent Socialism at all; the only relics of the ancient
communism and its charity remained in the monasteries, with the conservatism
which usually characterizes such institutions.
Kautskfs argument is a gross misunderstanding of the independent position
of religious thought ; apart from this, however, his work is not without a value
of its own, since it points to aspects of the question which had hitherto been
unnoticed. One particularly important point is the difference between the
Early Church, which lived under conditions based upon a money economy,
and the Mediaeval Church, when Society was based upon a natural economy;
this is very significant, although the importance lies elsewhere than at the
point suggested by Kautsky . This point will be developed farther on. — Kalthoff:
Die Entstehung des Christentums , 1303, takes a similar line, excepting that his
attitude towards religion is different. These are his presuppositions : (a) the
complete autonomy of the religious consciousness of the present day, whose
dependence on history is severed in the most radical way by pointing out,
either that Jesus never existed at all, or that if he did exist he was merely
one obscure Jewish enthusiast among many similar enthusiasts; as a liberal
theologian he is simply developing to its logical conclusion the tendency of
Biedermamd $ intellectual dogmatism ; (b) the impossibility of disentangling any
kind of kernel of truth from the miracle stories of the Bible, and the impossi-
bility of understanding PauPs transformation of Jesus into the God-Man,
whereas this is all intelligible if it is a free poetical interpretation of the second
century; (c) the modern collectivist, anti-individualistic, and sociological his-
torical method, which does not admit that such movements can begin with
one or even with several individuals, but requires an interpretation from the
point of view of mass social movements. Thus the rise of Christianity is ex-
plained from the Stoic philosophy, the communistic clubs of late antiquity
and the Messianic enthusiasm of the Jews, which blended together created in
Jesus a mythical hero and concocted the Biblical literature as primitive history.
The speculations dealing with suffering and death reflect the sufferings and
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 167
victory of the Christian community. The whole work is based upon entirely
arbitrary, partially untrue, assumptions, and in its positive section it is a
pure work of the imagination.
Above all, however, it is quite possible to gain a true estimate of the real
sources as relatively accurate traditions. The one point which has not yet been
cleared up is the rise of the Pauline Christology, which, however, is in reality
not a product of the formation of the Church but its manifest presupposition.
There can be no doubt that it arose as a fact out of the conversion of Paul,
however one may try to explain it further through other influences from the
non-Christian world.
Overbeck’s Studien zur Geschichte der alien Kirche , 1875, forms a contrast,
refreshingly clear, to all such attempts to interpret “social” history. This book
deals with “the relation of the Early Church to slavery under the Roman
Empire” ; this is the point at which a tendency towards social reform and a
connection with it would most easily show itself. Overbeck shows how, on the
contrary, from the very beginning slavery was regarded (along with the State,
Society, economics, and the family) as part of the sinful world-order which
cannot be altered. Slaves with non-Christian masters may only become
members of the Christian Church with the consent of their masters ; this rule
was made in order to hinder slaves who were politically minded and eager for
emancipation from pressing into the Christian community (pp. 188 and 202).
Indeed, slavery as one of the traditional methods of holding property was even
made more sure by Christianity, and the Church itself later actually owned
slaves and was unable to set them free. The overcoming of slavery was due to
purely inward religious causes, i.e. to the fact that both master and slave
equally belong to Christ; from the religious point of view both have equal
rights, and in the early days slaves were permitted to hold office in the Church.
It was only the Gnostic sects which displayed communistic tendencies, and for
that very reason they were opposed with great vigour. More details are given
about this subject farther on. But the fact that the Church recognized slavery
in this way, and that when she was free to act on her own initiative she intensi-
fied rather than modified these conditions, together with her acceptance of
slavery as an essential part of the social order, constitutes a very striking refuta-
tion of the opposite point of view.
11 (p. 40.) Cf. Wendland; giebarth: Das griechische Vereinswesen , i8q6. The
religious form of this system of associations, which flourished particularly in
the Hellenistic and Imperial period, was due to the fact that Greek thought
could only think of an association in the form of a community gathered round
some permanent form of worship ; although this religious form was often an
entirely external affair, in themselves these groups did not denote in any way
a religious movement. The associations formed for genuine religious ends
which arose during a time of denationalization, and with the increase of the
means of communication, were destined to serve the purpose partly of gatherings
of fellow-countrymen in a foreign land, partly for the reception of new cults;
their social significance develops in so far as they create a group of a family
kind, and produce the abolition of class-distinctions through sharing in a
common worship; in an age of increasing individualism, therefore, they were
sought for this reason ; but, exactly as in the Christian community, they allowed
social distinctions to exist outside the meetings for worship ; Ziebarth also points
out that it was mainly the upper classes which took part in these associations
for worship (p. 210). Hence there is no question of the existence of “communistic
clubs”, which according to Kalthoff were the soil from which Christianity
1 68 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
sprang into being; therefore even K. has to admit that in them “social and
religions motives operated in fullest harmony” ( p . 83). But Kalthoff regards the
synagogue as “communistic” and John the Baptist is “communistic” ! ! We
ought also to remember the decree of the Emperor against all political or
politically suspicious associations which was administered with great severity,
and the way in which the Christians were continually trying to prove the
political innocence of their associations ; cf. Neumann: Der romische Staat und die
allg. ICirche , 7 , 1890.
12 (p. 41.) Cf. Pohlmann's work. This valuable book must, however, so Max
Weber tells me, be used with caution. It is based too much on modern socialistic
categories, although in the period with which the writer is dealing the necessary
presupposition, i.e. a new class which is struggling to rise in the social scale,
does not exist at all. There is no industrial system and there are no factories.
Only the Carthaginians, and, after their example, the Romans, organized an
industrial system, and along with that the slave barracks. This does not mean,
however, that there was a factory system, because such a system would have
been impossible to work with slaves and there were no free manual labourers ;
thus there was no basis for a socialistic movement. The conflicts which do take
place happen rather within the ruling class, and are rather democratic than
socialistic, due of course to economic motives. The same groups always opposed
each other, with the aim of dividing power and property afresh. P. overestimates
the meaning of the political romances, and does not enter into the practical side
of things in sufficient detail. Even when Eduard Meyer speaks of “factory” in
his much more accurate study of the question, the political economists have
questioned this use of the term, although the latter have had to admit to the
historians that the range of Society affected by a money economy and by a
system of free labour was much greater than until then the political economists
had been disposed to admit.
13 (p. 41.) Wendland; Mommsen: Romische Geschichte , Band V; L . Hahn: Rom und
Romanismus im griechisch~r omischen Osten , 1906 ; all that Pohlmann can say about
this is to point to the romantic social philosophy of the educated classes which
looked back to the Golden Age and the primeval times ; then he adds : “Does
not the question then arise quite naturally : If even among the educated circles
of Roman Society there was such a capacity for dreaming of Utopias, to what
heights of fantasy must the revolutionary ideology of the proletariat have
risen” ( 77 , 606). This is a very insecure line of argument, seeing that a proletariat
of this kind cannot even be produced ; according to pp . 6i6ff. y this proletariat is
supposed to be composed of the Christians, whose ideas of the Millennium
correspond with Zeno’s social State of Humanity, which is supposed to form
part of the “religious phenomena of the Socialism of the Ancient World”.
The original Christian sources, however, know nothing of all this.
14 (p. 41.) For the social history of the Imperial period cf. Max Weber:
“ Agrargeschichte ” (Altertum) in HWB. der Staatswissenschaften and “ Wahrheit ”
( Stuttgart , 1896), pp*57~77s “on the social causes of the decay of the civilization of the
Ancient World”; Eduard Meyer: Die wirtschaftlkhe Entwickelung des Altertums , 1893;
Die Sklaverei im Altertum, 1897 , and Bevolkerung des Altertums in HWB. d . Staatsw.;
U, Wilcken; Griechische Ostraka aus Aegypten und Nubien, 7 , i8gg y pp . 664-704. Of a
very different character from these works Uhlhorn: Liebestatigkeit , pp, 93-1139
213-238. Weber describes the rise and decline of a capitalistic plantation system
of large estates based upon slave-labour, and the slave prison ( ergastulum ), which
withdrew from the coast to the interior, causing the civilization based on money
(which was not very strong in any case) to decline; through its competition it
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 169
created an unemployed Hungerproletariat of freemen : all this belongs to the de-
velopment in the West, and through the withdrawal of trade it meant also for
Greece the growth of a proletariat of this kind. Among the slaves of the large
estates who were herded together at night in the ergastulum there would have
been little possibility of Christianity being able to effect an entrance; only
when, owing to the lack of slaves, the system of the colonate was introduced,
and these serfs were again allowed to own property and to have a family life
of their own, did Christianity make progress among them. “This is parallel to
the victorious development of Christianity ; in the slave barracks Christianity
could only have found an entrance with difficulty, but the unfree African
peasants of the time of Augustine were already supporters of a sect-movement”
( Wahrheit , 68). Hence the Christian slaves must have belonged chiefly to the
smaller class of domestic slaves, or to the category of those who carried on a
business in the name of their masters and with their money, who remained
slaves in the eyes of the law, it is true, but who both economically and personally
enjoyed a considerable amount of independence. One well-known example is
that of Calixtus, who conducted a banking business for his master, and who in
spite of his rascally ways in business managed to become a bishop and then
Pope ; this was only another kind of middle class. It is, however, difficult to say
what was the situation so far as the free Hungerproletariat ( Kautsky's ct Lumpen-
proletariat ”) and its relation to Christianity were concerned. We ought to find
traces of this situation in the reports of the charity of the Early Church; here,
in fact, we do find exhortations to support those who are unable to work,
and to find work for those who are out of work ( Harnack : Mission , I, 150 ff.).
We must also remember the statement that about the year 250 Rome had to
feed and care for about 1,500 persons every year (if., /, 136). But in any case
this provision of work was not a central concern of the Church, and it can
scarcely have been successful on a large scale, so that we can only come to the
conclusion that the number of actual members of the proletariat who belonged
to the Christian community was not so very great ; and never do we find any-
where the least trace of any encouragement of revolutionary ideas among a
particular class. Further, all this only concerns the West. Also, until the close
of the second century the Church in Rome was essentially Greek, and thus it
had very little to do with distressed Italian peasants and manual labourers.
In the East the situation was considerably different, and it was in the East
that the larger number of the Christian churches and groups was to be
found, as well as their literature and their thought. Here a money economy
was predominant; this obliterated the great difference between the village
and the town, and there was an extensive lower middle class of free workmen
alongside of a not too extensive system of domestic slavery. It seems probable
that the larger number of the Christians were to be found in this middle class,
which therefore lived in social conditions where a money economy prevailed,
and which was mainly urban, although the villages were not ignored. The
reports of the large sums of money which were given for the purposes of
Christian philanthropy lead us to conclude that similar conditions also to some
extent prevailed in the West {Harnack, /, 127-172)] what part was played
alongside of that by the natural support of charity through hospitality, finding
work within the community for those who needed it, through gifts in kind
at the love-feasts ( Uhlhorn , , /, 138), cannot be ascertained ; in any case, they were
not the mam concern. Thus for a hundred years Christianity moved in circles
which were still scarcely affected by the great social upheaval. The final result
of the upheaval as a whole (which may be described as the destruction of the
170 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
peasant class by the ancient city civilization, and the destruction of this city
civilization in its turn by the sinking of capital in the system of large estates)
meant, however, the return, very largely, to a natural economy, and to the
stable primitive forms of social organization which are connected with it, as
well as the return to feudalism, through which, in the West, the Empire passes
on into the mediaeval natural economy, and in the East there arises a state
strongly conditioned by a natural economy, and also constituted as an exclusive
body of officials belonging to an hereditary caste. Obviously the Christian
Church was not produced by this process : at the most it was aided by the
Sense of a material decline, and of the need of masses of people who were in
distress. When Christianity rose out of the lower middle class, and the masses,
into the upper classes, it then felt the effect of these upheavals, and then it sup-
ported the State and the system of government, and as a thoroughly conserva-
tive power it also took up the task of meeting the widespread misery and want,
with which it was far beyond the power of the State to deal. This, however,
did not take place until the third century. Cf. the conclusions which Harnack
draws from his statistical researches ( Mission , 17 , 276-287) . “Christianity
was a religion of the towns : the larger the town, the greater — probably also
relatively — was the number of the Christians. At the same time Christianity
had also penetrated already into a large number of provinces (about 300) :
We know this for a certainty in relation to the majority of the provinces of
Asia Minor, also with reference to Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, and parts of
Palestine and North Africa 55 (p. 278) : “Above all, the great difference between
the East and the West sections of the Empire is most evident. If, however, we
distinguish between Greeks and Latins the percentage is still greater. The
explanation is simple enough : from the days of the apostles there had been
a Greek Christianity, but a Latin one, worth the name, only existed probably
from the days of Marcus Aurelius 55 ( p . 282 ). At the same time, everywhere the
Christian communities are supporters of Hellenism; “it was, however, not the
Egyptian Hellenism, but that of Asia Minor, with its connection with Persian
civilization, which took the lead 55 (p. 283). This also proves that here primarily
we are not dealing with the Italian “ Lumpenproletariat , 55 — There are many
interesting details in Uhlhorn’s book, but his point of view, i.e. that slave labour
suppressed free labour and produced pauperism, which Christianity tried to
overcome by charity and by teaching the dignity of labour, that, however, it
was unable to do this and failed, and therefore followed the line of asceticism,
does not apply to the early centuries, when an improvement had set in. It was
only in the fourth century that the State went bankrupt, and the masses fell
into such great misery.
16 (p* 43-) Cf. E. Meyer : Volkswirtsch. Entw. s p. 32. “The (religious) movement
begins in the middle of the first century of Christianity, during the period
when the "decay of ancient civilization both in the East and in the West was
being prepared, which then also receives its definite form through the develop-
ment of the princedom ( Prinzipat ). 95
17 (P* 45 *) The so-called Ebionite passages in Luke, which seem to glorify
poverty in itself, are no proof against this contention. For, on the one hand, they
assume (as the whole general attitude of the Gospels shows very plainly, as well
as the intention of the evangelist himself) the ethico-religious effect of poverty
In producing a better religious disposition, while, on the other hand, they are in
keeping with the authors tendency to lay stress upon sickness, weakness, want,
and poverty in order to exalt the religion of Redemption. This would not be
at all surprising if the tradition upon which the author has drawn did glorify
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 17 1
poverty in itself. The tendency is near enough. But Jesus’ proclamation of the
infinite worth of the soul, seems, without a doubt, to render quite remote any
idea of a value in poverty in itself, and a need to be compensated for it.
Cf. Holtzmann : Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie , 1827, I, 448-454, who
sees in these passages essentially the reflex of later popular development, which
quite naturally regarded the Kingdom of God as compensation for earthly
suffering and a reward for renunciation. That, however, is a very natural
result, and deterioration, of the thought, not its starting-point. The Apocalypse
of John simply preaches hatred against the Roman Empire and against the
worship of the Caesars, and pays no attention to social inequalities. The
Epistle of James, dating from the beginning of the second century, declaims
against rich men (//), but they are members of the Church! The severer
passage ( V , 1-6 ) is directed against rich men in general, but the whole general
attitude ought to be judged in the same way as the Ebionite passages. This is
the spirit of people with a narrow outlook. It is like treating the doctrines of
social democracy in a small way, as though they simply mean a “division of
property” and “revenge on the wealthy” ; in both cases very big people have
accepted the opinion of the lesser folk, and then have thought that they had
grasped the meaning of the principle ; this makes the task of criticism easier.
It is worthy of note that the Gospel of John in all its weighty development of
religious thought knows nothing of all this. On this question the essentially
religious idea stands in direct opposition to the “spirit of small minds”. We
notice the same thing in St. Paul. Weinel: Die Siellung des Urchristentums turn
Staat , 1307, pp. 12-17, overestimates the “socio-radical undercurrent”, and since
he infers it from the exhortations to quietness and self-restraint, reveals what
the real spirit is by this very remark.
19 (p. 47.) S. Jodi : Geschichte der Ethik 2 , I, 37, 113 ff. and Z e ^ er: Geschickte d.
griech . Philos, IIP, pp. 360 ff. After all, these motives chiefly affected the cultured
upper class, which was forced out of political life. We must assume that the
lower classes were less fatigued and resigned, in spite of the influence of all
the moral homilies and diatribes of the Cynics and Stoics. They suffered most
of all from economic pressure. There is no sufficient material to indicate their
outlook and temper, at least the documents which might be gathered from
existing inscriptions and papyri have not been collected and studied.
20 (p. 48.) That is what Pohlmann (II, 533) thinks, who sees in Christianity
“with the excessive Ghiliastic ideas of revolution” the most powerful revolu-
tionary ideology. The fact that Pohlmann considers that this ideology was
“particularly widespread” in Rome shows how inaccurate he is in such
matters. But Ghiliasm, or the Kingdom of God, has nothing to do with ideal
social conditions. Cf. Wernle: Die Anfange wiser er Religion 2 , 1304, pp. 38-43,
260-266. P. could only support his theory by referring to those “Ebionite”
passages, already mentioned, of which Early Church literature provides many
parallels. I have already dealt with this question. How unjustifiable it is to
speak of “a social revolution coming down from above, or from God”, we
learn from the simple circumstance that to a great extent poverty was artificially
introduced through the giving away of one’s possessions, simply in order to
satisfy the religious thirst for self-sacrifice and self-conquest. The dominant idea
in the estimate of poverty did not lie in any expected humiliation of the
wealthy, but very soon it lay in the ascetic-religious way of thinking, which is
the very opposite of Socialism.
23 (P' 54*) I* 1 these conceptions we have the fundamental principles of the
history of the Christian ethic, The moral demands themselves are later on
172 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
recognized as self-evident, and assumed to be known to everyone; as with
Jesus the Jewish ethic, so later on the individualistic-humanitarian morality of
late antiquity was simply taken for granted (Harnack: Mission , /, 180 ) . All the
Christian tables of virtues and vices, the isolated discussions of casuistry, and
incidental discussions of demands are therefore more or less accidental ; also
the later attempts to cram virtues into the Platonic or Aristotelian list of virtues,
or into the categories of the Stoics or of Cicero, are merely scientific artificiali-
ties. Claims and ideals were conceived out of the universal consciousness, quite
opposing schools like those of the Hedonists were sharply opposed as something
so completely wrong that their ideas ought not to be taken seriously. No
attempt was made to construct a really scientific derivation of ethical ideas
from the fundamental principles of Christianity; such attempts were con-
sidered superfluous. All that does appear are mere questions of detail, such as
those of the connection between the natural powers and the morality of grace,
or of a way of life which is either more ascetic or more in touch with the
general life of the world, and, while these discussions are usually supported by
quotations from Scripture, they are actually entirely incidental, and possess no
guiding principle. This is the reason why most histories of Christian ethics give
the impression of an infinite confusion.
In point of fact, however, instinctively there is a principle of selection among
the presupposed moral judgments, and this principle is already revealed in the
dual tendencies of the Gospel here mentioned. The introduction of asceticism,
which makes self-denial an end in itself ; the preponderance of purely sacerdotal
authority, which turns the commands of the Church into a law, and obedience
into an ascetic act of humility ; the relation between the equivalent reward and
the penalties of purgatory, which makes action not a means of union with
God but a means of guaranteeing one’s future destiny ; and, finally, the casuistry
which weaves a complicated web of commandments — all this, indeed, produces
an atmosphere of uncertainty which is extremely bewildering, but which in its
turn is triumphantly broken through by all interior souls. The Jewish Decalogue
was only adopted as a summary of Christian ethics quite late in the history of
the Church, and the “Evangelical Counsels” were placed alongside it as the
really new Christian element. This constitutes a final and complete obscuration
of the real facts of the case.
24 (p* 57-) I* 1 this particular I do not think I can quite agree with Harnack’s
interpretation of the fundamental position. H. {Reden, I, 28 /.) analyses the
Gospel and finds here three essential elements : (1) Trust in God, (2) belief in
Redemption, (3) love of one’s neighbour. The first may lead occasionally to
Quietism, the second either to a holy indifference towards the world or to a
radical improvement of the world, the third is the social motive. But in my
opinion we cannot thus separate the elements, and simply place them side by
side like this. In any case, trust in God and faith in Redemption are inseparably
connected ; this means that man can give himself quietly and unconditionally
to the highest interest, to that of the soul’s salvation, because God cares
sufficiently for his temporal needs, and does not wish him to have any anxiety
about temporal matters; suffering too, which very specially belongs to the
temporal realm, should be accepted in the same trustful spirit as an experience
of real value and for one’s eternal good ; on the other hand, the emphasis upon
a quiet and steadfast trust in God, in the midst of the work and order of a
stable world, is only the specifically Lutheran interpretation of this idea. The
belief in Redemption which is contained in and conditioned by faith in God,
which is the root principle of that which I call absolute religious individualism,
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 173
does not stand merely alongside of, or even in contrast to, the love of one’s
neighbour. It is quite clearly a motive springing out of the fundamental religious
idea, as a manifestation of the perfect Divine temper, the awakening of the
understanding of the true nature of God, as the fulfilment of the Will of God,
in its most distinctive way — in which fulfilment, indeed, the soul frees itself
from the world and abandons itself to God. It is true that the Gospel makes
no distinction between “bodily and spiritual distress”, and that “the needy and
the wretched are to be assisted with all the powers of love” ( p . go). But even
material help issues from the collective unity of all in God, and is a proof of the
Perfection of God who lets His Sun shine on the just and on the unjust. Cer-
tainly such brotherly love could not possibly be claimed without a real spirit
of love, but this spirit of love is attached more to the thought of God as active
Fatherly love, and not to the thought of the help and assistance in itself.
Otherwise it would be impossible to explain the emphasis laid on manifestations
of pure love and the renunciation of all politico-social reform claims. To some
extent love always implies self-conquest; or at least it expresses itself in the
proclamation of the Message of Christ, or the endeavour to reveal or awaken
the true knowledge of God in other souls ; love is desired for the sake of God
and not for the sake of man, This holds true of the life and times of Jesus, and
of all the period which immediately followed. H. says on p . go: “The world
saw a new drama; whereas until now religion had always been either in close
touch with earthly things and had willingly accompanied every circumstance
of life, or it had set its face against all this and had striven to nest in the
clouds, she was now faced with a new task : she had to learn to consider earthly
things — both need and want as well as good fortune — as something of little
account, and yet she was to be ready to help every kind of distress ; the Christian
believer is to gaze courageously towards Heaven, and yet with heart and
mouth and hand to work for his brother here on earth.” It seems to me that
there is something wrong about this “and yet”. The sentence on p. g2 : “Where
the Christian sees clearly that a certain economic situation has become full
of pain and distress to mankind there he must seek a remedy; for he is a
disciple of Him who was a Saviour”, was never true of the Early Church, as
the history^ of slavery shows very plainly. Its dangerous effect on character,
and the pain and misery it caused, was well known in the Early Church, and
even in Christian households it was by no means always avoided. The fact is
that the idealism of the Church, coupled with her belief that the world, just
as it^ is, cannot be altered, prevented her from ever perceiving that ethico-
religious values are connected with, and to some extent determined by, the
natural basis of life. If I cannot agree with H. on all these points, I can agree
with the following statement by Schmoller ( Grundriss , /, 7$) : “It is certain that
these one-sided phenomena were the necessary accompaniment of that moral
idealism which gripped the Western nations, leavened them with its ideas, and
lifted them to a high stage of civilization. Out of this Christian surrender to
God, these hopes of immortality and everlasting bliss, there arose a trust in
God and a power of self-conquest which reached heights of actual moral
heroism a purity of soul, a selflessness, and a self-sacrifice for ideal ends became
possible which had never been known before. The idea of brotherly love, of
the love of one’s neighbour, and of humanity began to permeate all the
circumstances of life, modifying the hard conception of property, producing a
victory of the interests of Society and of humanity over all selfish personal, class,
and national interests, and a spirit of concern for the poor and the weak for
which one searches antiquity in vain.” In this passage the sociological principle
174 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
itself, and its social application and influence, are rightly distinguished ; the
inward difficulty, however, which opposed the latter is not sufficiently em-
phasized in this passage. On the other hand, in my opinion the incorrectness in
Harnack's conception seems to lie in this : that he makes no distinction between
the two, but that from the beginning both are merged into one. The following
are in agreement with my analysis : Augustine's interpretation of the Christian
idea of love in the first chapter of his Doctrina Christiana ; Clement of Alexandria,
in his TrpanpeTTTiKog ; Uhlhorn> pp, 51-66, On one point, however, I do not agree
with Uhlhorn ; he misunderstands the eschatological nature of the Kingdom of
God, and speaks of making the world an instrument for the Kingdom of God,
conceived as a redeemed humanity united in the love of God. These ideas
are Lutheran and modern accretions ; the whole of the following inquiry
will show how little an idea of that kind represents the spirit of the Early
Church.
26 (p* 59*) It is a mistake to found the economic doctrine of the Gospel upon
the story of the Rich Young Ruler, and certain familiar words which are con-
nected with it concerning rich people. This is what L. Brentano ; Die wirtschaft -
lichen Lehren des christlichen Alteriums (Sitzungsberichte der phil.-hist Klasse der
Miinchener Akademie 9 igod) has done, and he was certainly able to claim the
support of the Fathers. But these Fathers were already influenced by the need
to dogmatize about the words of the Bible, and also by the idea of ascetic
poverty, which had gained a position of great importance in the fight against
the world. In their embarrassment the word of Jesus offered a very easy way
out of their difficulty because it seemed to distinguish between ordinary
obedience and higher perfection, and in this way it exactly seemed to answer
to both needs, i.e. of life in the world and of ascetic renunciation. The words
about the spiritual danger of riches are quite clear when we understand the
fundamental point of view of Jesus, and they contain no negation of property,
nor indeed any asceticism at all. In any case, the story of the Rich Young
Ruler, however, whose genuineness can neither be proved nor disproved,
cannot be made to serve as the basis of a doctrine. Jesus 5 attitude towards the
question of possessions is clear enough, namely, to seek first the Kingdom of
God and not to be anxious for the morrow. But the young man wants to do
something special, so Jesus invites him to take part in His missionary work,
and to sell all and give to the poor. We can only raise objections to this story if
we believe that Jesus taught the doctrine that there was never any need for
any special heroic efforts, but that the ideal was one dead level of the same
duty for all. But this abstract kind of teaching was quite remote from Jesus.
Its principle is preserved if such an effort constitutes no special merit. All the
self-sacrifice of the disciples, and the challenge to prove for themselves whether
their strength is equal to the demands of the Gospel (Luke xiv. 33), is a sign
that this idea of special achievements was not far from the mind of Jesus; it
was, indeed, quite natural to Him. Further, it is quite possible that this story
has been influenced either wholly or in its form by later ascetic ideas. In any
case, it is not the key to the economic teaching of the Gospel, but only the
key to that of the later Church, which, owing to the fact that it had to fight
with much more highly developed economic conditions, felt the difficulty and
the contrast far more strongly. For her, however, the first part, that it was
enough to keep the commandments, was quite as important as the second.
Without the recognition of the fact that Jesus did summon His disciples in the
narrower sense, or the missionaries and messengers of the Kingdom of God,
to tasks which were harder than those which are laid on the mass of His
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 175
followers, the whole Gospel cannot be understood — It would indeed seem to
have lost all logical meaning.
31 (p. 64.) It is a remarkable fact that the communistic socialistic statements
of the teachers of the Church only appear forcibly m the post-Constantine
period. Harnack rightly lays stress upon this point (. Reden, II, 41 /.), and it also
comes out very clearly in the collection of passages made by L. Brentano : Die
wirtschaftlichen Lehre des christlichen Alter turns, to which he had already alluded
in his rectorial address, Ethik und Volkswirtschaft in der Geschichie , 1301. Brentano
himself does not notice this, and therefore, on this ground (i.e. of the expressions
of opinion by the later Doctors of the Church) he speaks of a “strongly socialistic
tendency which is evident in the Christian teaching of property 55 (p. 183).
Kauisky and Pohlmann , in addition to their misunderstanding of the idea of the
Kingdom of God and of the Apocalypse, have appealed to these later Doctors,
and especially to Homily XI in the Acta apost. of St. Chrysostom , as the proof of
the communistic character of Christianity. This sermon, which certainly is
very remarkable, is, however, based upon the story of Ananias and Sapphira ;
it is, therefore, quite natural that this text should give the whole sermon a
communistic flavour. It is, however, a striking phenomenon. The explanation
lies, as Uhlhorn shows us (I, 265 ff.), partly in the fact that the economic situa-
tion was growing steadily worse, partly in the doctrine of the Primitive State,
which the later Fathers had formulated, and which will be expounded below,
partly, and above all, from monasticism, as indeed Chrysostom himself
suggests: “Thus to-day men live in the monasteries in the way in which in
other days the (Jerusalem) believers used to live 55 (Brentano, 138). The Church
gave no practical expression to these ideas at all, as is emphasized by Harnack
(Reden, 43), Overheck: Sklaverei, 223, and Uhlhorn, /, 233, but rather the contrary.
Brentano’s treatment of the subject betrays an absence of all understanding of
the spirit of the Early Church ; indeed, his one desire seems to be to prove that
the ideas of Early Christianity are of no use for a Liberal Capitalistic economic
policy, which was otherwise quite evident.
32 (p 68.) Cf. Wendland; feller: Gesch . d. griech. Philos IIP, 1, and IIP, 2;
Overbeck: Stellung der Alien Kirche u.s.w.; Keim: pp* 31-55, 308-328; Bonhoffer:
Die Ethik des Stoikers Epiktet , 1834; Zahn: Der Stoiker Epiktet und sein Verhaltniss
gum Christentum, 1835; Baur; Drei Ahhandlungen zur Geschichte der alien Philosophic
und ihres Verhaltnisses zum Christentum, 1876; Jodi, I, 584-587, 82-108 The
universal social ethic belongs to the Stoics alone, and this is the reason why
it is so extremely important for Christianity, as will be shown later on. The
ethical system and school of the Cynics, which in so many ways are closely
allied to it, do indeed manifest a striking likeness to it ; but the lack of a
social system of ethics founded on the religious idea of the Unity of God and
the Love of God, means that it is unable to rise far above the average level ;
it tends rather in the direction of a pure individualism, with insistence on the
importance of inner possessions, that is, to asceticism. Otherwise the ancient
schools of philosophy possessed no social or ethical importance at all. The
social philosophy of Aristotle with its conception of Natural Law, where the
idea of the State is based merely upon Reason, with its adherence to the old
ideal of the concrete city-state of antiquity, and its merely philosophical regula-
tion of the concrete historical State, is many centuries away from Christian
thought, and only later did it gain some significance through fusion with the
Stoics 5 conception of Natural Law. Platonism, which from the second century
became a renewed force, was indeed of the highest significance for Christian
thought ; this, however, was only due to its religious mysticism and its dualistic
17 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
metaphysic, not to its social philosophy. The latter is always connected with
the city-state by the true Platonist in a specifically Hellenistic and aristocratic
manner, and its communism does not arise out of love to God and in God,
but out of the intellectual desire for unity, and it has, therefore, no inner
relationship with the Christian ideas of a universal communism of love. The
interest of the new Pythagoreanism and Platonism, however, unlike Platonism
with its interest in patriotism and social reform, based on contact with a concrete
Hellenism, was overwhelmingly religious ; its main concern was with mysticism,
asceticism, the problem of immortality, the attainment of personal salvation
through an inward new birth, and the renewed inspiration of the cultus, in
which Divine revelations are granted to the believer. In the sphere of social
ethics and politics they adapted themselves to the Empire, proclaimed the
necessity for an ethical renewal of the existing order, and general goodwill ;
the real centre of their thought, however, was not that of a humanity in the
ethical service of God, but a mystical fellowship in worship, conceived in a
very aristocratic and intellectual way. Genuine Neo-Platonism, moreover,
places political and socio-ethical interests which were always closely connected
in the ancient world, far behind a completely subjective form of religious life,
whose highest point is reached in the experience of ecstasy ; its conception of
God certainly contains some of the essential elements of mysticism, but of social
ethics it has no trace. This, of course, is of great significance for the theory of
religious knowledge and for metaphysics, for the monastic system, and for the
attitude of the Church to the world, but not for the idea of a universal social
ethic. This is why all the later attempts to realize the vision contained in the
politeia of Plato deal only with the relationship between the Church and the
world, but not with the general social ethic of Christianity, feller, ///, 142 /.,
146-1891 605; Vossler: Die gottliche Kombdie , /, 2, 1907, in his study of Dante's
Christian social ethics and politics, and of the historical elements which form
their setting, comes to quite similar results, in so far as the Hellenistic-Roman
social Roman doctrine and ethic are concerned. For the extraordinary impor-
tance of Cicero for the Christian ethic see also the excellent book by Thamin:
St. Ambroise et la morale chretienne au 4^ siicle , 1895. “II est un de ses ancetres
moraux, et, a sa manure, lui aussiunpere del’eglise” (p. 172). Thesame writer,
on Seneca (p. 178) : “Jerome le compta done au nombre des ecrivains ecclesi-
astiques, et pendant douze siecles ce fut une tradition incontestee”. Curiously
enough Epictetus plays almost the same part.
36 (P* 61.) Kauisky is right in his observation that a communism which retains
the idea of private property necessarily immediately feels the results of this fact.
This is really the reason why primitive Christian communism did not last.
Further, however, we must admit (what Kautsky himself, owing to his conception
of Christianity as a socialistic movement, cannot see) that the conservative
religious attitude, which accepts the world-order as natural, and also the
possession of private property as an integral part of it, and therefore the
refusal of all revolution, is forced to give up communism. The latter would
only have been possible to carry through if it had gone very much farther than
it did in those primitive days, and then it would have had to give up private
property altogether. But no one thought of such a thing, for that would have
meant a new order and a total revolution.
36a (P* 65.) When this was already written Harnack’s instructive discussion
of the first section of my contribution, in the Prussian Yearbook for March 1908 ,
came into my hands. Speaking of the problem -contained in the second section
he says: u On the one hand, there broods over the growing development of the
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 177
Christian community a kind of ‘communism of love 9 which has arisen spon-
taneously out of the radicalism of love to God and man ; on the other hand,
it was almost impossible to imagine that this communism of love could ever
be realized, or, if it were realized, it would not endure. People were not ready
to alter conditions. The consequence was that unconsciously the Christian
community adapted itself to a long process of transformation within the
framework of existing conditions, or, rather, it set in motion a general process
of moral development, which slowly permeated its social environment.
Naturally the first institution to benefit was the family, then all social inter-
course through trade, in daily life, and Society, through the virtues of faithful-
ness and trust, purity and peace, support and help. ... At first, of course, all
this was confined to the Christian congregations in their life amongst them-
selves, but these communities grew larger and larger, and there are several
instances of their care for those who were not believers. The position which
was gained was, from the social point of view — and realization — the most
favourable that can be imagined ; the ideal of ‘love-communism 5 brooded over
the life of Christian communities, preventing them from settling down in
complacency, and yet it was far too high — with some insignificant exceptions
— to be realized in practice; in the communities themselves strong moral
demands for the purification of private life, marriage, the family, and all
social intercourse were operative, but these demands were related to real
conditions. From the very beginning the new religion was, or very soon became
in the Gentile Church, a conservative power in relation to social conditions. . . .
Apait from her nebulous ideal of the communism of love, Christianity neither
possessed nor evolved any social programme peculiar to herself; ... all she
did possess was an absolute authority, while she also introduced various
improvements, a higher morality, a more inward attitude towards life, and
an actual achievement of helpfulness which probably was far ahead of any-
thing of the same kind that existed in the Empire at that time 55 ipp. 437 ff.).
All this, of course, is quite true. But, on the one hand, this statement seems to
me to underestimate the remoteness of the new community towards the world
as well as its fundamental idealism, while, on the other hand, I believe that in
this actual historical content there are in principle deeper depths and deeper
consequences, which still need to be specially formulated. Behind this “long
transformation within the existing world order 53 there was a peculiar acceptance
of it. Thus at the very outset we are confronted with the problem of the
relationship between the revolutionary and the conservative elements in
Christian thought, a problem which recurs continually throughout the history
of Christianity.
36b (p. 85.) For the latter see J. Burkhardfs teaching on the crises and
revolutions of world history, and the special character of the modern crises :
Weltgeschichtliche Betrachiungen , 1905, pp. 132-137, 193/., 19B, 200, 128 . — For the
relatively conservative character of the Christian ethic see my Politische Ethik
und Christentum , 1904, in which, however, the opposite aspect is emphasized.
Both tendencies are also noted by Stahl , who is still an acute and instructive
thinker for the present day. Cf. Der christliche Staat , p. 8: “The Christian
disposition, that combination of reverence, humility, surrender and freedom,
independence and frankness, which is quite remote from all slavishness of
spirit. 53 In his. opinion most scope is allowed for this spirit under a constitutional
monarchy: “It is precisely that, even when in a less perfect form, which must
constitute the fundamental relafionship of a genuine republic. 33 “Historically
also the institution of the constitutional state, as well as the production of this
VOL. I, M
v/l X J.JULJ
I7O JLttSh OKJKJlJTklu XJUtX\JXXXX^\jw
political temper, have arisen out of Christianity. The Germanic races have
received from the Catholic Church the high sense of the consecration of the
government which comes from God, and the Christian-religious movement of
the English Puritans and Independents arises out of the idea of the liberty and
self-government of a Christian nation. 55
360 (p. 86.) In our works on Church History this necessary revolutionary
effect of the universalistic-transcendental religious idea on the whole existing
order in the State, in Society, and in civilization is not sufficiently stressed.
Here also the extremely thoughtful phenomenology of history (mentioned
above) by J, Burkhardt sees very clearly into the question. The teaching on the
six ways in which the State, religion, and civilization mutually condition each
other is a mine of apt observation. For the revolutionary character of Christ-
ianity and of universal religion in general, see pp. 137-145, “Judaism and
Primitive Christianity based Society upon religion, just as Islam did at a later
date 55 (■ p . 138 ). This led these religions into sharp conflict with the civilization
which was based upon the State. That the radical opposition still exists at the
present day (in which many only see, with Burkhardt , the “complicity 55 of the
religious ecclesiastical authorities with the conservative power-interests, which
are menaced by abstract rationalism and the free development of civilization)
can be seen in the following ways : in the constant struggle of the Roman
Catholic Church with the State and with modern civilization, which is not
due merely to reactionary motives or to the need for centralization; in the
clash between religious cosmopolitanism and the Peace Movement with
political interests, in the hostility of ethical policy and its “humanitarianism 55
to the lack of principle which characterizes all politics which are simply moved
by the desire for power, in the suspicion of revolutionary tendencies which is
cherished by the conservatives whenever a Christian social policy is outlined,
and, in Calvinistic countries, the frequent interference of congregations and
ministers by inserting socio-ethical demands into political programmes.
36d (p. 87.) With this cf. the extremely able book of Simmel: Die Philosophie
des Geldes 2 , igo8 , which contrasts the intellectual-ethical correlatives of a
natural economy {Naturalwirtschaft) and of a money economy ( Geldwirtschaft )
with each other in a most instructive manner, and which has opened my
eyes to these connections also in the different formations and crises of the
Christian ®fliic. It seems to me of great importance that this tendency of the
Christian ethic towards simpler and less stereotyped conditions of life should
be separated from* the later complications of ecclesiastical and politico-social-
conservative interests. The conservatism of the Early Church and of the Middle
Ages had nothing to do with this tendency as it did not try to conserve these
conditions, but only taught obedience and submission to the existing authorities
created by God, which were also, in some way, also due to sin. The conservatism
of the modern churches, however, is directed towards conserving politico-social
conditions of power. One of the most suspicious elements in the social ethic of
the conservative “Christianity 55 of the present day is the fact that its represen*
tatives will not face the glaring inconsistency between their views and the hard
facts of the present economic situation. On the other hand, when a political
programme of peasants and of manual labourers appeals to the ethical standards
of Christianity understood in the patriarchal sense, it is certainly justified in
doing so; but this is a very different matter from submission to the conservative
principle of obedience to all the powers and authorities created by and per-
mitted by God. Stahl also did not venture to claim this tendency to revert to
simpler and more patriarchal conditions for politico-social conservatism, but
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 179
only for “the conservative tendency in the purest sense” (p. 16 ). Max Weber
has pointed out to me in conversation the fact of the continuance of the more
primitive and personal group-morality in the lower middle classes of the
Ancient World, among whom the Early Church met with the greatest response.
Long ago scholars noted that the early Christian communities lived, to a great
extent, within the same social framework as their contemporaries. The
Christians adopted the customary rules of the tribe or association, thus
showing how closely their own ethic was connected with that primitive group-
ethic with its emphasis on the individual.
40 (P* 95 -) The fact that the ecclesiastical organization, and its relation to
other social groups, is conditioned by the conception of truth, is the point of
view from which my treatise, Die Trennung von Staat und Kir che, igoy , endeavours
to illuminate the problem. For this reason I hold it to be an error to regard
Catholicism too exclusively as the heir of the Roman idea of Empire ; its need
for centralization and its exclusiveness are due primarily to its conceptions of
truth and of the Sacraments, and are only connected with the Empire to the
extent that the Empire also required a unified form of religion as its correlate.
For the same reason I hold it to be an error to derive its dogmatism and
intellectualism (which are only connected with its unity, and not with the
intelligibility of the doctrine) from “Hellenization” and an admixture of
Greek metaphysics. In the main it is explained by the development of the idea
of unity, even in the sphere of doctrine. The spirit of real Greek science
appeared very seldom in the history of dogma, and when it did it was always
condemned.
46b (p. 104.) Cf. Zockler: Kritische Geschichte der Askese , 1863, essentially a collec-
tion of material on pagan, Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant asceticism, as well
as a statement about the theological theories of asceticism, but for that very
reason most instructive. On the other hand, however, the book almost entirely
lacks all psychological insight. On that latter point see James: Varieties of
Religious Experience , 1902, for some fine observations. One-sided and fantastic
stimulation of religious feeling, with lack of stress on the ethical side and a
lack of objectivity due to lack of scientific training, tends to produce in certain
individuals a mass of psychopathic phenomena. But even in individuals who
are highly trained on the ethical and scientific side the tendency to melancholy
will produce that feeling of distance from God as well as union with all kinds
of forcible methods which we see in Origen and in Pascal. Further, such
abnormalities do not exclude the growth of real and valuable religious elements
which can become detached from the soil in which they arose. See Hellpach :
Jjxr Formenkunde der Beziehungen zwischen Religiositdt und Abnormitat , Z* f*
Religionspsychologie , 1907.
48 (p. 105.) Cf. J, Burkhardt; Die Zeit Konstantins des Grossen , 1833. A description
of this kind can certainly only be applied to the upper classes, as I have already
suggested. But even among the lower classes it disturbed their confidence in
the previous order of things and the old standards of life. To what extent
asceticism, which, indeed, in its achievements does constitute in itself an enor-
mous development in force, strengthened the natural energy of these lower
classes which was already directed towards the transcendent realm, is difficult
to say, but it is worth considering.
50 (p. 106.) How little virginity in itself, however, signifies a negative ascetic
attitude to life is shown by the Apostle Paul, in whom the tendency towards
celibacy is an isolated trait, and tan be clearly explained as an aversion to the
competition -of the passions of sex. The restraint required in other forms of
i8o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
religion before talcing part in religious rites is due partly to the same reason*
and partly to the idea of uncleanness, due to the physiological process.
51 (p. 108.) The transition from the Gospel to asceticism takes place easily
when that which only has sense and significance in connection with fellow-
ship with God is practised for its own sake, and, so to speak, laid up as a
provision in order to be ready to stand before God. Thus the destruction of
self-will, of the love of self and the world, readiness to serve, humility, and love,
are practised in matters that are quite indifferent, in order to be used a little
more easily in the real and only valid connection. Along this line the transition
of the Gospel from heroism to asceticism develops psychologically, and once
this has taken place it gathers into itself all the other motives for asceticism
which belonged to the time. As proof of this see the meaning of the word
4 ‘asceticism 5 * audits change in meaning cf. Gass , /, 104; it means (first of all)
practice in virtue, and forms, for instance, in Clement the condition of the
higher Gnostic perfection; ascetics are then the martyrs as “developed and
strong to suffer, setters forth of the Imitation of Christ 55 . From this point it
developed in a direct line towards monasticism. “It was just as possible to
regard asceticism as a means of fostering moral activity as also to give to it
a meaning in itself, to turn it into a merit. The difference between the two
was so finely drawn that it was impossible to prevent the one merging into
the other. 5 ’ From that time forward, and not till then, did the word have its
modern sense of “mortification 55 and despising of the woild, denial of the
world and flight from the world, while even to-day Catholic ecclesiastical
language uses it first of all in the sense of practice in virtue and the means
of virtue. It has even been used in this sense by Protestant ethics.
62 (p. 108.) Augustine’s explanation of this point is characteristic (J Oe doctrina
Christiana , J, 3ff.) : he distinguishes between frui and uti, which became a funda-
mental element of all the later teaching of Catholic ethics. To “enjoy” anything
means to “love” anything; but the Christian should love no one but God in
the true sense of the word. For the world there remains over the nsus. It is like
the ship in which one returns to one’s home. If we were to take such pleasure
in the comforts and pleasantness of the journey, or of the means of travel, that
we were to give ourselves up to enjoyment, instead of to the mere use of the
vessel we would lose sight of the goal of the journey. We must use the world,
but not enjoy it, in order that we may see the invisible in God through the
visible and created world, i.e. from the things of time and space we must
reap a harvest of the unseen and the eternal. This is most characteristic. It
is not asceticism in the actual sense of the word, but the replacing of the
value of the good things of this world by pressing them into the service of
the supernatural. But real asceticism, the mortification of Nature and the
annihilation of the natural will, very easily slip into it. The whole of primitive
Christian thought and that of the Middle Ages regarding the world sways
hither and thither between these ideas— a clear sign that the fundamental
idea is not asceticism but the supernatural outlook, the exaltation of a
specifically religious life-aim, in fellowship with God, above all worldly
interests. Asceticism only steps in as a means to protect the spiritual life from
the over-vigorous competition of worldly ends, and it certainly achieves its
object, although instead of limiting the Christian’s interest in the things of this
world it treats them as non-existent. It is the via tutior , which is also closely
connected with the point of view which leaves out of account the ethic of
sentiment and replaces it with the new law and the acquisition of merit.
In the latter instance great ideas are reduced to the average level, with its
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 181
interest in the rewards and penalties of the future life, much of which belongs
to Greek eschatology, and has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God;
cf. A. Dieterich: Nekyia, 1893, and G. Anrich: Clemens und Origenes als Begriinder der
Lehie vom Fegfeuer ( Theol. Abhh., Festgabe fur Holtzmann, 1902). Very frequently,
however, this means that asceticism becomes an end in itself; but when this is
really the case there is always a way out through that radical monasticism,
which is suspect to the Church, or through that pantheistic mysticism which is
alien to Christian thought. Again and again the Church has refused to admit
these by-paths. In this she is completely logical ; though she has always done it
instinctively, and, in fact, not from the standpoint of a principle which she
clearly perceives.
63 (p. 1 10.) For the double standard of morality see Uhlhorn, /, 200 jf. In my
opinion we ought not to regard this from the customary Protestant point of
view simply as a departure from the most primitive and genuine Christian
morality. For this primitive Christian ethic, with its indifference to the world,
with its insistence on the attainment of perfection, had, indeed, from the
beginning no theory about the rejection of the world, but, on the other hand,
it had no desire to penetrate or to transform the world. Montanism means the
rigid adherence to this old attitude of indifference to the world and to the
eschatological hope. As the Church expanded and penetrated into the general
system of the world’s life the force of circumstances finally made all this
impossible. Uhlhorn says: “Now the Church was faced by the great task of
penetrating the whole of the surrounding life of the world — of the nation,
the state, science, art and social conditions — with the Christian spirit, and of
transforming it from within outwards. She failed to achieve this task, and
was turned aside into false paths’’ (p, 20i) 3 into the path of laxity on the
one hand and into that of asceticism on the other. This task, however, she
never stated to herself, and, indeed, she could not formulate it, with the
conception of the world which was hers from the very beginning, and which
lay at the root of all her thinking. In view of the prevalence of the conception
of the world which has just been described there was no other possible solution
than that of the division of the task. Uhlhorn 3 s ideal is based upon a different
conception of the world, which is peculiar to Lutheranism, and especially to
“world-transforming” Lutheranism. At bottom it contains the modern attitude
to the world, which was only brought into being and completed by the later
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The whole problem of asceticism is altogether
much more subtle and complicated than Protestant ethical teachers usually
recognize. Further, the idea of a double standard of morals has its parallel
and its precedent in Stoicism, whose rigorism also necessitated a higher and a
lower morality, a morality of perfection and one of mediocrity. This parallel
has not passed unnoticed. The iraidayoyog of Clement {III, ii) and the De
Offieiis Ministnorum of Amb?ose 3 /, 36-37, with direct reference to the Stoics,
accepted the distinction. To this belongs also Nietzsche’s famous doctrine of
“slave morality”. It is very remarkable that Nietzsche, who in reference to his
own system of morals is very conscious that it is the consequence of the proposi-
tion God is dead, will not allow that the other system of morals is the conse-
quence of the proposition God is alive . In truth, the Gospel ethic should be
interpreted throughout in the light of its religious motive, which Jesus inherited
from Judaism ; we can, however, scarcely imagine that his primary motive in
this ethic was the elevation of the depressed classes. If there is anything which
is characteristic of Jesus it is the, natural pre-eminence in Him of the religious
element. Humiliation in itself, I/and for its own sake, is, however, only an
&
182 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
ascetic action* and its setting is far more complicated than Nietzsche
admits.
u (p. hi.) The only systematic attempt (of which I have any knowledge)
to develop the ethical idea from the principle is in this passage from the
Collationes of Cassianqu.otedby Ziegler (Gesck.d.christLEthik,p. 208 ) : “Principium
nostrae salutis sapientiaeque secundum scripturas timor domini est [i.e. above
all religion] de timoie domini nascitur compunctio salutaris. de compunctione
cordis procedit abrenuntiatio, id est nuditas et contemptus omnium facultatum.
de nuditate humilitas procreatur, de humilitate mortificatio voluntatum
generatur. mortificatione voluntatum extirpantur atque marcescunt universa
vitia. expulsione vitiorum virtutes fructificant atque succrescunt. pullulatione
virtutum puritas cordis acquiritur. puritate cordis apostolicae caritatis perfectio
possidetur.” As Z^ er lightly remarks, this is, indeed, primarily the ethic of
the cloister. Nevertheless, in its inner connection it is the fundamental type
of morality in general; the only monastic element is the looking to the
Church to create humility and to exercise charity. Otherwise, it is noteworthy
that it is exactly those fundamental commandments of purity of heart and
brotherly love which I singled out in my analysis of the Gospel which here
also emerge as the leading qualities; it is also very clear that the changed
purpose of both is formulated from the point of view of asceticism instead of
from that of communion with God ; mortification of the will also implies the
destruction of evil, and the end is love and communion with God. That love
is produced from the task of self-development is, indeed, only possible because
silently and naturally the Gospel conception of God is still assumed, because
the task of self-development at bottom is still dimly interpreted as self-surrender
to the creative Divine activity. Certainly the main idea of God which lies
behind all this is very obscure, and therefore even love tends to be regarded
rather as asceticism, a “good work 55 , or a “merit 55 . Instead of love, therefore, it
is better to use the expression “charity 55 , which has become the customary term
in Catholicism. The emphasis on puritas cordis and caritas amid the varied lists of
virtues and vices became fixed for the whole of scholasticism. Cf. Z^ er with
reference to Augustine ( p . 230), to Hrabanus Maurus (p. 253), to Albertus
Magnus (p. 387), to the mystics {p. g8g), The Theologia Germanica (, 4.06 ),
Thomas & Kempis ( 407 ), and Meister Eckhardt (p. 39 ff.). The combinations
fluctuate between humility and charity, detachment and love. The relation
of these ideas to the Gospel source is quite clear, as well as the fact that the
changes introduced by asceticism, ecclesiasticism, and the doctrine of merit
are due to an altered conception of God. The mystical analysis in particular
approaches the Gospel very closely, even up to the frontiers of mysticism
itself and its acosmic background, which are quite remote from the Hebrew
idea of a God of Will.
66 (p. 1 14.) Overbeck , pp. ig7~20i, rightly points this out. Harnack , in his
Militia Christiana , 1905, pp. 50 ff., gives it as his opinion that the predominance
of the eschatological outlook gave the Church “a quietistic and conservative
tendency ; after this had declined, while at the same time during the period
of the Antonines the Church expanded greatly (which also meant that the
Church grew into the conditions of the fourth century) , then only did the Church
become conscious of her opposition to the State, the social order, and public
life in general, as a matter of conscience 55 . “Now there arose with full force
the sense of responsibility: What ought to be our attitude as Christians to the
world around us? We have grown into this wo$d against our own will, because,
believing that it would soon come to an end, we have not sought to make
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 183
any changes in it. 55 This can, however, only be explained (as HarnacFs own
description of the relation of Christians to military service shows) by saying
that when the Christians began to press into callings which were dubious from,
the Christian point of view, they began to feel the contrast very clearly, and
also expressed it in literary form. In all this, however, it was always only a
question of withdrawal from the world, never of a reform of the world ; and in
the end Christians learnt to tolerate these conditions by regarding them as
part of the life of the world, and indissolubly bound up with the existence of
the State. Scruples about military service disappear, and the Synod of Arles
{314) decides to excommunicate deserters from the Army, while Tertullian
and Origen had still absolutely forbidden Christians to serve in the Army at
all ; and even they, in spite of their assertion that the shedding of blood by
soldiers is absolutely unchristian, would have tolerated it if it had not been
for the fact that military service brought the soldiers into connection with
the worship of the Emperor, Thus the non-eschatological Church is still more
quietistic and conservative than the one in which the eschatological idea
predominated. This is due to her theoretical view of the world and the State,
and the closer the Church drew to the State the more conservative became her
conclusions, while radicals took refuge in monasticism. The eternal nature
of Rome: Bigelmair , 77, Cumont , VeterniU des empereurs romains {Revue de Vhist. et de
litter aturereligieuse, 1896). Lactantius prays for Rome: “Roma est cimtas, quae adhuc
sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus est dens coeli, ne citius quam putamus
tyr annus ille abominabilis venial , qm tantum facimus moliatur et lumen illud effodiat”
(quoted from Bigelmair , p, 81 ) . The imperium is for Barnabas, Irenaeus, and
Hippolytus the fourth empire in the Vision of Daniel, which will endure until the
return of Christ — a philosophy of history which lingered on to the time of the
Reformation. Only when Christ returns can it be said with Commodian : “luget
in aeternum, qui se jactab at aeterna ”, ibid., 87. Even the severe enemy of the world,
Tertullian, can only say; “Christianas nullius est hostis nedum imperatoris , quem
sciens a deo suo constitui necesse est , ut salvum velit cum toto Romano imperio , quo usque
saeculum stabit, tamdiu enim stabit ,” ibid., 88. The great Fathers of the fourth
century take the eternal character of the Empire for granted just as much;
cf. Uhlhorn, 221 ff. Ambrose says that the nail of the True Cross which the
Empress Helena introduces into the crown is “the good nail which holds the
Roman Empire together”. In spite of all the incursions of the Barbarians no
one believes that the Roman Empire will ever fall. “The idea that the Bar-
barians could ever make an end of the Roman Empire and the Roman
civilization could never be even conceived by any Roman, not even by any
Christian Roman.” Augustine, Orosius, and Salvian regarded all these calamities
as punishments sent by God, which were to cleanse and purify the Empire.
For the idea of the eternity of Rome even among the Franks, see Hauck; K. G.
Deutschland, /, 171, 231, passage from Beda, p. 429: “Quamdiu stat Colisdus, stat et
Roma; quando cadet Colisdus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus .”
67 (p. 1 15.) Cf. Brentano: Wirtschaftliche Lehren; Harnack: Missionsgeschichte, I,
130 ff., 233; Uhlhorn: Liebestdtigkeit , I, 120-128, 288-299; F . X. Funk : Kirchenge -
schichtliche Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen, II, 1899; Klemens von Alexandrien
uber Familie undEigentum , 45-60, Handel und Gewerbe im christlichen Altertum, 60-77;
the subject is very fully treated by J. Seipel : Die wirtschaftsethischen Lehren
der Kirchenvater {TheoL Studien der Leo-Gesellschaft, 18), Vienna, 1907; further,
in Ratzinger: Die Volkswirtschqftin ihrensittlichen Grundlagen, 1881; R. W. and A. J.
Carlyle: A History of Medieval Political Theory in the West, /, 1903, the chapter
entitled “Theory of Property”, 13^-146; Gass: Gesch. d. Ethik, 1, 94 ff. and 223 ff.
1 84 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
The only work which deals with the problem directly is—as is well known — that
of Clement : Can a Rich Man be saved? It is an allegorical account of the story
of the Rich Young Ruler, which suggests that it is not necessary to renounce
possessions but the spirit which clings to possessions ; otherwise wealth ought to
be used fully for the purposes of charity. It is most favourable towards wealth,
and at the same time it is one of the most sensible works from the economic
point of view, and it is also filled with a spirit of very fine and tender piety.
For the present day Christians have always refused to adopt communistic
principles. Lactantius reproaches Plato (who in other respects comes so close
to the truth), saying: “Communism in possessions is an offence against
righteousness ; but the collective possession of wives and children would mean
the breaking down of all restraint ; moreover, to place them at the disposal of
the State would be the greatest misfortune that could happen” {Bigelmair, 89 ).
The restriction of communism to the primitive period, and the fact that family
life was rigidly preserved, is entirely overlooked by Brentano in his insistence
upon the communistic character of the Christian doctrine of property. — The
work of Sommerlad: Das Wirtschaftsprogramm der Kirche des Mittelalters , 1903, is
scarcely any use at all, in spite of its appeal to good authorities. In this book,
in solemn earnest, economic theories are attributed to the Fathers; to each
one is assigned a special theory (or system), and each of these supposed
peculiarities is placed in a circumstantial setting. The passages which are here
collected are very valuable, but the construction which is put on them has
no value at all. The only useful point is the emphasis upon the communistic
theories of the Primitive State which were in vogue from the fourth century.
Sommerlad explains them as a reaction against the despotism of the State, the
exclusiveness of Society, and the development of a monopoly of wealth, also
to the influence of Plato. The former is possible ; instead of the latter the
emphasis should be placed upon the Natural Law of the Stoics, which was
accepted and absorbed from the time of the Apologists.
59 (p. 1 17.) On the question of luxury, see details in Bigelmair , 231-244;
here very different conditions were allowed according to the social class;
upon the whole a fair amount of simple comfort was permitted; this fact
throws a good deal of light upon the c 'existence minimum” and the question
of private property, quite apart from the fact that the tone of the exhortations
shows that these ideals were not carried out very far into practice. How natural
it seemed to possess property is revealed by the fact that Tertullian, who was
so austere a man, counsels against Christian women marrying pagans, in
order that the husband, by threatening to denounce his wife, may not cause
her to renounce her property (. Bigelmair , 251). All insight into practical details
reveals the way in which property was taken for granted; it was only in
eloquent speech about love that it took a secondary place.
80 (p. 1 18.) On Christianity and work, cf. Harnack: Mission, I, 134 , 136;
Uhlhorn: Liebestatigkeit , I, 76-79, 129-131; Seipel, 123-133; Simon Weber:
Evangelium und Arbeit , Freiburg, 1898; E. Meyer: Sklaverei, 37; Overbeck, 226 .
An example from Tertullian in Funk, II, 66, from Chrysostom in Brentano , 197,
from Augustine in Funk, II, 70 . All that Uhlhorn has to say about the “digni-
fying” of labour is this : 4 ‘The ancient Fathers say very little, indeed, remarkably
little, about work. Whenever the subject is mentioned, however, then we feel
immediately that in the pagan world it had been regarded quite differently . . .
certainly the deeper moral estimate of labour, the conception of vocation, the
connection of the earthly calling with the heavenly one, had not yet dawned
upon the Church. . . . The general duty of wc!ik, the significance of labour in
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 185
a calling for the exercise of the Christian life and the furtherance of the Kingdom
of God, is never expressed anywhere. Hence also the apostolic constitutions can
only tell the rich who do not need to earn their bread that they must visit
believers and hold edifying conversations with them!” All this, however, only
means that the later Lutheran doctrine of the ethic of work and of the “calling”
was unknown to the Early Church. These ideas were unknown because they
arose out of another kind of spirit.
61 (p. 120.) On this point see Harnack : Missionsgeschfchte , /, 251-261 , and also
his Militia Christiana; Seipel , 146-161 , and Bigelmair. The latter work represents
an immense amount of industry, and contains a mass of instructive material.
For the social and vocational organization of the society of the Imperial
period see Seipel, 1-48 , which in the main is a resume of Marquardfs Die
romische Staatsverwaltung and Das Privatleben der Romer ( Handbuch der romischen
Altertumer 2 ) . For the general character of ancient society, and the ways in which
it differed from Germanic-mediaeval society, see the great article by Max
Weber: Agrargeschichte ( Altertum 2 ) in HWB. der Staatswissenschaften , 3rd edition ,
especially p. 67, which is to be followed by one equally important on the
“colonate” system. For the rise of the idea of a “calling” see the remarks
of the same writer in Prot, Ethik u.s.w Archiv xx, pp. 35-40 . There are many
passages from the Fathers upon which the opinion which has been formulated
above is based in Sommerlad , who certainly lays a true emphasis upon the
special points in the social doctrines of the fourth century, but who does not
realize that these are due to the development of the Stoic idea of the Law
of Nature.
62a (p. 127.) Seipel, ioy-iog, 131 , the system of callings based upon inequality
and the need of supplementation. Similar passages from Basil are quoted by
Sommerlad , 131 ff., Theodoret, i6y ff. In addition, the passages collected by
Seipel from Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, show that there was
everywhere in the background the thought of an original equality, and the
idea that differences in possessions were due to the fact of sin, that therefore
the ideal is the love-communism of monasticism, that, however, men were
quite conscious of the fact that in real life, and within its legal system, such
ideals could not be realized in practice. Thus the ideal of “perfection” is not
a communistic society for production, but a poverty which gives everything
away and depends upon the support of others, in order to be able to serve
them in monastic and ecclesiastical ways. Thus Augustine’s communistic
experiments became the ideal of the life of poverty of the clergy, leading to the
toleration of the general situation, with the proviso that a generous charity
should be exercised. This, however, does not provide a fruitful soil for the idea
of the “calling” {Seipel, igo-ng).
64 (p. 129.) Cf. Marianne Weber: Ehefrau und Mutter , 186-igy , which in parts
I follow literally. There is no idea here, however, of an independent ecclesi-
astical marriage law. Zscharnak: Der Dienst der Frau in den ersten Jahrhunderten
der Kirche , 1902; Donaldson: Woman , her position in Ancient Greece and Rome , and
among the early Christians , London , 2907. For the derivation of the patriarchal
form of law from the Fall, see Overbeck: Sklaverei,p. 198 , according to Chrysostom,
from the variety of Nature according to Augustine, p. 200 . — For the position
of women the “Widow-office” and its development was characteristic.
Originally widows were regarded as female presbyters, who took their
share in the official work of the Church, and who were entrusted with
the work of religious instruction as well , as with the administration of poor
relief. As the idea „nf the ministry developed, however, widows became less
1 86 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
important than the deaconesses, and as asceticism increased the “holy virgins”
came to the fore. Then women lost their place in the government of the
Church altogether, and the deaconess became a lower official in the service of
the Church. No woman is allowed to take any part in the function of offer-
ing the Mass which mediates salvation ; here we may apply the word of the
Lord (apocryphal) : “The weak is saved by the strong” (Uhlhorn, /, 159-17/),
66 (p. 132.) On this point cf. Uhlhorn , /, 184-183, 362-375; Seipel , 30-32;
and the dissertation by Overbeck, to whom I owe a great deal for the whole
conception and for the indication of passages in the Fathers. The right point
of view, several source passages, and a stronger emphasis upon the inner
transformation of the relationship than that given by Overbeck, are found in
Carlyle , I, 1 11-125 : “Natural equality and slavery.” For passages from
Chrysostom see Overbeck ( ig8 ) from Augustine ( 200 ). This also throws a light
upon the “communism” of Chrysostom; it was, indeed, simply a proposal to
try to abolish the misery of the poor in Constantinople by pooling possessions,
and a pious desire aroused by the experiment in the Acts of the Apostles. On
this question, and on similar Antiochene sermons, Seipel (38-105) is very useful.
67 (p* 134*) Hamack: Mission , 1 27-171; Ratzinger: Geschichte der Armenpflege ,
1868, and especially Uhlhorn' s masterpiece. Apart from Uhlhorn' s strongly
apologetic tendency my own view differs from Uhlhorn' s conception in the
question of the significance of the “world” for Primitive Christianity and for
the Primitive Church. Uhlhorn reads into the Gospel the Lutheran ideas
about the ethic of the “calling” and of the service of God in the social division
of labour, and he suggests that the Catholic ascetic attitude towards the world,
and with that also the practice of charity, arose out of asceticism, the mis-
understanding of the nature of work and of possessions, and the transformation
of the spiritual ethic of the Gospel into an ethic of “works”. He himself says,
however, that this morality was only present in germ in the Gospel, and that
it was only gradually developed. “This heavenly calling includes the earthly
calling, for even in one’s earthly calling everyone ought to exercise his or her
work for the Kingdom of God, in order to further the purposes of the Kingdom
of God, doing his part to help to solve the great problem which was placed
before man at the Creation, of dominating the earth” (p . 77). “To the extent
in which the other human group-forms (after that of the family) gradually
become permeated with the Christian spirit, they also in their own circles
develop the practice of charity. The State, the civil community, the corpora-
tions all take their share in the solution of the common task” ( p . 65). Thus
Uhlhorn argues ; only his own work shows that this Christian penetration and
domination of the world was not attained, and not sought after, even from the
very beginning. Of the early days he says : “The task of fleeing from the world
is the primary one ; the duty of penetrating the life of the world with this
new life only occurred gradually to the Christians.” But that which did
come gradually to pass was in reality something quite different. Somewhat
later it is said: “The tendency towards renunciation of the world was still
stronger than that of acceptance of the world” (p. 127 ). And in another place :
“The Church was now also confronted with the great task of penetrating the
life by which she was surrounded— in the State, science, art, and social con-
ditions— with the Christian spirit, and of transforming them from within.
She failed to achieve this, and this led her into false paths” ( p . 201 ). Speaking
of the period of Constantine : “A real penetration of the life of the people with
the leaven of the Gospel . . . did not even jjake place approximately, and
therefore Christianity was obliged to work i| the other direction in a dis-
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 187
integrating way” (p. 218) . Finally : “It was impossible for the life of Christianity
to penetrate the life of the Ancient World. It was only the Germanic world
which was able to become really Christian” (p. 342). In all these statements
the fundamental relation between the Gospel and the world (that is, the
social conditions) is wrongly conceived, and the Kingdom of God is regarded
as a new ethical order within the life of the world. This is quite wrong. But
even though it may seem as though the Church failed to penetrate the life of
paganism, and only thus became forced into the Catholic-ascetic direction,
this also is an error. Uhlhorn has nowhere proved that the Church ever had
the intention of moulding the life of the pagan world which would have made
it possible to say that she had failed. In reality she never failed because she
never set out to do this at all ; she had not the least intention of doing so. She
only failed to believe that it was possible to rid the Christianized world of
poverty and misery, at least to a minimum extent ; this being so, she withdrew
into small monastic groups. Uhlhorn recognizes this latter circumstance very
clearly. Cf. p, 34 .
67a (p. 142.) On all these points see Edgar Loning: Gesch . d. deutschen Kirchen-
rechtes , /, 1878, The first volume gives an excellent and most instructive account
of the development of the Church after Constantine. Chapters ii-iv are par-
ticularly striking. For the influence upon the law of the State, cf. p . 316.
Cf. also the summary of the social significance of the episcopate ( p . 362) : “The
powerful position which the bishops gained during the fourth and fifth cen-
turies was based upon ecclesiastical and secular foundations. The religious and
ecclesiastical influence which the bishop exercised within his own territory
over the faithful as the representative of the power of the Church was sup-
ported and increased by the great wealth of the Church, which he administered
almost without let or hindrance, and by means of which he held all the clergy
and a large section of the poorer people in the towns in dependence upon
himself; his power was also increased by the important legal public powers
with which he had gradually been entrusted by the State.” If we place the
picture sketched by Loning in connection with the general situation which
had developed, and with its main ideas, we see still more clearly the fact that
all this only meant a very limited contact with the life of the world, and that
in no wise does it represent a Christian unity of civilization. We cannot even
speak of the “mediaeval subordination of the State to the Church” as having
been realized even in germ. All that we can say is that here the Emperor was
used for some special ecclesiastical ends of power, but there was no question
of Christianizing the collective life. More will be said on this subject below
in connection with the relation between Church and State, — For the way in
which bishops and clergy exercised the office of public poor relief and charity,
the life of poverty led by bishops and clergy, the use of the fortune of the
Church as the property of the poor, but also the gradual way in which aristo-
cratic ways of living stole into the episcopate, and the division of the wealth
of the Church into shares for the bishop, the clergy, the poor, and for the
building of churches, as the beginning of the end of the system of poor relief
as it was carried on in the Primitive Church, see Ratzinger: Armenpflege , 61-140,
R. emphasizes rightly that this conception was characteristic of the Primitive
Church, and that with the change by which the fortune of the Church was
used solely for ecclesiastical purposes, after the new law of property of the
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, this whole social function of the episcopate ceased,
and has never been revived even in the present day.
68 (p. 144.) Cf. Harnack : Lehrfuch der DogmengeschichU . For the Christianizing
1 88 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the literary professions and forms, see E. Hatch : On the Influence of Greek
Ideas and Usages on the Christian Church , 1888; v. Schubert: Kirchengeschichie , I, 806.
For the growth and minglings of the various myths, see Usener: Religions -
geschichtliche Uniersuchungen , I, 1889; Bernoulli: Die Heiligen der Merowinger , 1900;
Lucius: Heihgenlegenden , 1905. Monographs on the subject of the attitude of the
period towards natural science and critical history would be very desirable ;
they would throw a great deal of light upon the whole spiritual and intellectual
situation. — In this connection it seems to me not quite accurate to describe
the acceptance of “science’ 5 as “secularization 55 ; nor can we regard the fact
of entering into the life of the State as “secularization” either. The only kind
of science which was accepted was that which was already spiritual and idealistic
in tendency as well as religious and ethical. The real secularization only belongs
to the acceptance of the art of rhetoric, and all that this involved of artificial
and tawdry declamation. It was, indeed, a decaying form of culture with a
terrible hypertrophy of formal acuteness and rhetoric. For this very reason it
is scarcely accurate to describe Gnosticism as acute secularization, as Overbeck
and Harnack have done. The aspects of Gnosticism which approach Christianity
are also dualistic and ascetic. In all this there is only an endeavour on the
part of the historical and mythical elements in particular to gain universal
foundations and conceptions — that is, to reach science. In itself, however, the
habit of scientific thought does not necessarily involve secularization as Overbeck
thinks it does. — For that very reason, therefore, it is also erroneous to speak
(as Thamin and others do) of the Christian ethic and Gnosticism as being over-
powered by “the ancient world”. The “ancient world” which was accepted
was no longer the ancient world of earlier days; it was the ancient world
which had become spiritually idealistic and dualistic.
69 (p. 145.) Unfortunately there is no monograph on this subject; see my
review of Seeberg 9 s Dogmengeschichte , Gott. GeL Anzeigen, 1901 , pp. 22-26. In the
Early Church the matter was at first concealed behind the idea of the Logos,
then it was treated rather incidentally as the presupposition of ethics, especially
among the Latins in connection with Cicero. But these relations are of the
highest importance for what follows, Gierke, III, 124. The subject was only
developed into a fundamental dogma by scholasticism. That is why it escaped
the notice of the historians of dogma of the Early Church. Cf. Hergenrother:
Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat, 1872, pp. 13 jf.
The equation is finally completed by Philo. Cf. Hirzel: ei Aypa<f>og vo/iq$”
(Abhh. der philol.-hist. Klasse derSachischenAkademie , 1903 , Bd. XX, pp . 16-17). The
doctrine of the a.v. is said to have been formulated by Philo, partly under the
influence of his faith and partly under the influence of philosophy: “The wise
men of ancient history, the patriarchs and fathers of the race, present in their
lives unwritten laws, of which Moses wrote later for the imitation of those who
came after. In them the law was fulfilled and it became personal. They them-
selves, however, needed a norm by which they could direct their actions, and
this was provided for them by Nature. This norm also is once described by
Philo as an unwritten law. . . . A.v. is to him a law which is not written upon
stone or upon paper, but which stands out in a living way in action and in
life, whether in outstanding individual representatives of the same, of the
Patriarchs or heroes, or finally of the Supreme Being, of the Universe or of the
Godhead.”
Heimici thus summarizes the content of the books De Abrahamo, De Josepho ,
De vitaMosis,De decalogo ; “In both these earMer treatises the element which
shaped the lives of these patriarchs is worked out; their lives represent the
i
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 189
incarnation of the unwritten law, of the inspired and reasonable law, in which
human nature appears in its completeness, and which formed the presupposition
for the codified law of later days. Abraham is represented as the type of right
knowledge, Joseph as the type of the statesman ... (a treatise which has been
lost) describes Isaac as the type of the autodidact, who develops his nature
( pvaig ) symmetrically, and Jacob as the type of the ascetic, which here means
as a hero of self-denying and successful active energy. The main theme how-
ever ... is the life of Moses, in which the hero appears as the perfect lawgiver,
who is also praised as king, priest, and prophet at the same time. The work
De decalogo according to its introduction, belonged to the series of the vopoi
dypapoi. It glorifies the eternal moral truth, which is imparted by God directly
to His interpreter as the basis of all further legislation” ( Theol . Litzg., 1903,
col . 77). Every reader of the two sole ethical treatises of the Primitive Church,
the vaidaycoyog of Clement of Alexandria and the De Officiis Ministrorum of
Ambrose, knows how naturally both follow this line of thought. That Philo
was explicitly imitated by Ambrose and the school of Alexandria is confirmed
by Thamin also in his St. Ambroise et la morale chretienne au 4 lme siecle , 1893. The
equation between the Law of Nature and the Mosaic-Christian law is restored
partly through the identity of the Logos which is operative in them, partly
through the well-known doctrine of the borrowing of Greek wisdom from the
East. — For Paul, see Quimbach : Die Lehre des h. Paidus von der naturlichen
Gotteserkenntnis und dem naturlichen Sittengesetz; Freiburg , 1906 ( Strassburger TheoL
Studien , VII, 4) ; Q. rightly emphasizes the fact that here already the Natural
Law is regarded as identical with the Decalogue. — Waldstein : Der Einjlnss des
Stoizismus auf die diteste christliche Lehrbildung {Theol. Stud. u. Krit ., 1880), con-
siders that the acceptance of the ethical doctrines of the Stoics was confined to
Justin and Clement (there certainly very thoroughly), whereby the Logos
means the Stoic Law of Nature, according to the word of Chrysippus : “ Stove p
reXog yfverai to aKoXovOcog x fj pvaei £fjv, dvep sox l Kara ye rrjv avrov Kal
Kara xrjv rcbv oXcov , ovddv evepyovv rag &v avayopevciv eioodev 6 vdjuog 6
Koivdg, Sovep eorlv 6 opOog Xoyog Sid vavrov epyopevog , 6 afirog cbv rq>
Ail KaOrjyrjpdvi xorjrcp x fjg rcbv oXcov dioiKijaecog d'm” ( p . 636). But in reality
the matter went much farther than this ; it is everywhere the natural accom-
paniment of the Logos conception, or an assumption which is everywhere
assumed as quite obvious. I note certain passages. JusiinApoL,II,8: “DzcoikoI
k&v xdv rjdiKov Xoyov kocjuioi yeydvacnv” ; Apol . , 11 , 10: li ooa ydp KaXcog del
£pd£y£avro Kal eflpov ol piXoaoprjaavreg rj vojaoOerrjcravreg, Kara X6yov
fiiipog . . . sort vovrjdivra adrotg * evstdi] 8 s ov .vavra xa rov Xdyov
iyvcbpioav, 8g sotlv 6 Xpicrrog , /cat ivavria eavrolg voXXaKig elvovT Dialog.
II: “aldrvidg re rjjnZv vopog Kal reXevraXog Xpiardg eSodrj ." Clement: AL Pad.,
I, 2*6: '‘rjpeZg dd a/aa vorjfxaxi (sc. Oeov) vtfmot ytyovapiev, xfjv dplarrp , /cat
pspaiordrrjv xagiv vapa rrjg avrov evra£lag vapaXapfidvovreg, rj vpobrov fiev
d/ifii xdv Kdapov /cat xdv ovpavov, rag de rjXiaKag veptdivrjcreig KVKXelrai
Kal rcbv Xoivdbv aarpcov rag popdg daxoXeXrat Sid rov avOpcovov, eveira de
vepl rov avOpcovov avrov, tts pi 6 v rj 7 7 do a avovSrj Karayiveral Kai rovrov
§pyovljyovpi6vr} ptiytcrrov j fivy^jv pev a'drov <f> povtfae Kal creep pocrvvrj Karrjvdvvev,
r d Sd acbfia KdXXsi Kal evpvdpiia , avveKEpaoaro , vepl de rag vpa£eig rfjg
dvQpcovorrjxogrors ev afiroZg Karo pQovv Kal rdevraKiov sviswevaerd iavrrjg .**
(This is Natural Law, Providence, Logos, Ethic all at once.) Also Padag. 1 , 7 , 60.
Origen , v. passages which will be quoted later on . — Irenaeus (Harvey), IV, 27,3:
“Quare igitur patribus non d^posuit Dominus testamentum? Quia c lex non
est posita j usds’, justi autem *patres virtutem decalogi habentes in cordibu
I 9 0 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
et animabus suis . , . propter quod non fuit necesse admoneri eos correptoriis
litteris, quia habebant in semetipsis justitiam legis. Cum autem haec justitia
et dilectio . . , cessisset in oblivionem et extincta in Aegypto, necessario
Deus . . . semetipsum ostendebat per vocem.” IV, g, 2 and IV, 24., 1, the
immutability of the Divine Law, according to which also the Law of Christ
must be identical with that of Moses and of Nature, only divested of its legal
form and with an emphasis upon freedom.— Tatian, 28: “Aid rovxo Kal rtfq
Trap 3 v ytiv Kareyvcov vofioOeclaq. Miav pev yap exprjv swat Kal kolvtjv diravrcov
Tr}VTio\ireiav Tertullian: Devirg. rel ., I: “Sic et justitia (nam idem Deus justitiae
et creaturae) prima fuit in rudimentis, natura Deum metuens. Dehinc per
legem et prophetas promovit in infantiam, dehinc per evangelium efferbuit
in juventutem, nunc per paracletum componitur in maturitatem. De test,
anim. 5 : Magistra natura, anima discipula. Quicquid aut ilia edocuit aut ista
perdidicit, a Deo traditum est, magistro scilicet ipsius magistrae.” — Lactanims:
Just , VI, 8: “Suscipienda igitur Dei lex est, quae nos ad hoc iter dirigat, ilia
sancta, ilia caelestis, quam Marcus Tullius in libro de re publica tertio paene
divina voce depinxit: c est quidem vera lex recta ratio, naturae congruens,
diffusa in omnis,constans, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officiumjubendo, vetando
a fraude deteneat, quae tamen neque probos frustra j ubet aut vetat nec improbos
jubendo aut vetando mo vet. Huic legi nec abrogari fas est neque derogari
aliquid ex hac licet neque tota abrogari potest, nec vero aut per senatum aut
per populum solvi hac lege possumus . . . sed et omnes gentes et omni tempore
una lex et sempiterna et immutabilis continebit unusque erit quasi magister et
imperator omnium Deus. . . .’ Quis sacramentum Dei sciens tarn significanter
enarrare legem dei posset quam illam homo longe a veritatis notitia remotus
expressit? Ego vero eos, qui vera imprudentes loquuntur, sic habendos puto,
tamquamdivinentspiritualiquoinstincti. . . . quod (that is, the full exposition)
quia facere ille non poterat nobis faciendum est, quibus ipsa lex tradita est ab
illo uno magistro et imperatore omnium Deo. Hujus caput primum est ipsura
Deum nosse. . . . Dixi quid debeatur deo, dicam nunc quid homini tribuendum
sit.” — Ambrose: De qfficiis , I, 84; “naturam imitemur,” I, 124, <£ ne quid contra
naturam, ne quid turpe atque indecorum sentiamus” ; I, 223, “decorum est
secundum naturam vivere, secundum naturam degere, et turpe est quid
sit contra naturam”; /, 229, “appetitus rationi subjectus est lege naturae
ipsius”; III, 31, “Justus legem habet mentis suae et aequitatis ac justitiae suae
normam” ; III, 19, “haec utique lex naturae est, quae nos ad omnem stringit
humanitatem, ut alter alteri tamquam unius partes corporis invicem defera-
mus”; III, 25, Agreement between morality and utility according to the Law
of Nature, likewise III, 28 and III \ 24. II, 80: “unde igitur haec vel Tullius vel
Panaetius aut ipse Aristoteles transtulerint, apertum est satis,” follows a refer-
ence to the Old Testament ; likewise II, 6. Epist.,53, 10: “Non fuit necessarialex
per Moysen, denique subintravit ... in locum naturalis legis intraverit. Itaque
si ilia suum servasset locum, haec lex scripta nequaquam esset ingressa” ; like-
wise 53, 2: “Ea igitur lex non scribitur sed innascitur, nec aliqua percipitur
lectione sed profluo quodam fonte in singulis exprimitur et humanis ingeniis
hauritur — Ambrosiaster : Com . in Ep . ad Rom., 3, 20: “haec ergo est lex naturalis,
quae per Moysen partim reformata partim firmata.”— Hieronymus: Commentary
on Isa., 24, 6: “Audeant Judaei, qui se solos legem accepisse domini gioriantur,
quod universae primum gentes totusque orbis naturalem acceperit legem et
idcirco postea lex data sit per Moysen, quia prima lex dissipata est,” with an
appeal to Paul, Rom. ii. 14. From Augustine^ Jodi, I, 536, gives a number
of passages : “Lex vero aeterna est ratio divina aut voluntas Dei, ordinem
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH i 9 i
naturalem conservari jubens, perturb ari vetans.” Contra Faustum, 22, 7. Accord-
ing to Gierke , III, 128, 1 add finally : Isidorus Hisp. Grig., V, 2: “Omnes quidem
leges aut divinae sunt aut humanae ; divina natura, humanae moribus con-
stant, "and from the Glossa ordinaria: “Jus naturale dicitur, quod in lege Mosaica
vel in Evangelio continetur.” — Most emphasis, however, ought perhaps to be
laid upon the fact that Lactantius, Ambrose, and Augustine in their works
base their teaching in a most outspoken way upon Cicero. The first part of
De civitate proceeds with the aid of the expositions of Cicero, and the officiis
of Ambrose are, to some extent, a literal reshaping of those of Cicero. This
fact is due to the assumption that the Christian ethic and the Natural Law
and Natural Right are identical.
70 (p. 146.) Cf. Gierke : Genossenschaftsrecht , III, 122-186; for the changed aspect
of the fundamental sociological feelings, see some excellent remarks in the
section Vertus nouvelles in Thamitfs book, pp. 250-278. See also the famous
passage in Lactaniius, V , 15 and 16 about equality, which is the essence of that
righteousness which the pagan moralists, even including Cicero, had con-
ceived in a mistaken way. To the Christians this has been revealed. But even
Lactantius does not draw practical conclusions from the fact of equality:
“Dicet aliquis nonne sunt apud vos alii pauperes, alii divites, alii servi, alii
domini? nonne aliquid inter singulos interest? nihil nec alia causa est cur
nobis invicem fratrum nomen impertiamus, nisi quia pares nos esse credimus,
nam cum omnia humana non corpore sed spiritu metiamur, tametsi corporum
diversa sit condicio, nobis tamen servi non sunt, sed eos et habemus et dicimus
spiritu fratres, religione conservos, divitiae quoque non faciunt insignes, nisi
quod possunt bonis operibus facere clariores . . . cum igitur et liberi servis et
divites pauperibus humilitate animi pares simus, apud deum tamen virtute
discernimur : tanto quisque sublimor est, quanto justior ... si non tanturn
quasi parem, sed etiam quasi minorem se gesserit, utique multo altiorem
dignitatis gradum Deo judice consequetur, nam profecto in hac vita saeculari
brevia et caduca sunt omnia.” Here the important step has been taken of
interpreting righteousness as equality, but the idea of equality is still confined
purely to the religious sphere, in which its rationalism naturally finds its own
level, and makes its own limits.
71 (p. 146.) Cf. Neumann : Der romische Staat und die allgemeine Kirche , I, 1900;
Gierke , III , 122-128; Harnack: Mission , I, 206-227; Bigelmair , 76-124; Hergen-
rother: Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat, 1872; Weinel : Stellung des Christen -
turns, etc . The first volume of the work by R. W. and A . J. Carlyle, entitled
A History of Medieval Political Theory in the West, is of especial importance for this
subject. In it I found a confirmation of everything which I had already arrived
at independently; this work, however, is supported by a mass of authorities
greater than were accessible to me in my own researches. J. Carlyle accomplished
this with the help of a staff of theological assistants. The orientation of his
work is to this extent different that he is concerned merely with laying bare the
foundations of the mediaeval period, whereas my main concern is with the
relation between its social life and groups, and the fundamental ideas and
starting-point of Christianity.
72 (p. 147.) This is simply and characteristically expressed in the Acts of
the Scillitan Martyrs, in which the Christian Speratus, when he is summoned
to swear by the genius of the Emperor, replies: “iyd* r^v (Sacs'tX&tav toft vvv
almoQ off ytvaxytcco” ; the saeculum and the Empire are coupled together in a
passage of Tertullian which is oTjten quoted: “Et Caesares credidissent super
Christo, si aut Caesares non essent necessariisaeculo, aut si Christiani potuissent
192 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
esse Caesares” {Neumann, 149). When the latter idea came in the earlier idea
still remained in existence. The same Tertullian says in the same Apology,
which certainly was deliberately friendly : “The Christians place the Emperor
under God, but only under Him ; after Him the Emperor is supreme, and he is
superior to all the pagan deities. He has been chosen by God, and owes his
greatness to Him” {Neumann, 150). The idea which lies behind this is that the
gieatness of the Emperor consists in presiding over the empire of sin, to which
also he gives a secular order. The question of the attitude of Christians to the
“world” is, therefore, identical with that of their attitude to the “laws” of the
Empire {Neumann 115 and 168). But even when the laws of the Empire had been
purified as a whole they still bore the character of the terrena civitas : “Invenimus
ergo in terrena civitate duas formas : unam suam praesentiam demonstrantem,
alteram coelesti civitati significandae sua praesentia servientem. Parit autem
cives terrenae civitatis peccato vitiata natura, coelestis vero civitatis cives a
peccato naturamliberans gratia. . . . Ibi humanus usus ostenditur, hie divinum
beneficium commendatur” {Augustine: De civ . Dei , XV, 2). This is the double
character of all States, of that of Israel first of all and then of the Roman-
Christian one, which in its first form belongs to the general type (which is
the same everywhere) of the civitas terrena . The latter is expressed in an explicit
manner, De civ. Dei , XVIII , 2, i : “Societas [i.e. the civitas terrena] igitur
usquequaque mortalium diffusa per terras et in locorum quantislibet diversita-
tibus, unius tamen ejusdemque naturae quaedam communione devincta . . .
adversus se ipsam plerumque dividitur et pars partem, quae praevalet, opprimit
. . . sed inter plurima regna terrarum, in quae terrenae utilitatis vel cupiditatis
est divisa societas (quam civitatem mundi hujus universali vocabulo nuncu-
pamus) dua regna cernimus longe caeteris provenisse clariora, Assyriorum
primum deinde Romanorum. . . . Nam quo modo illud prius, hie posterius,
eo modo illud in Oriente [i.e. Nimrod] hoc in occidente surrexit. denique in
iliius fine hujus initium confestim fuit. Regna caetera ceterosque reges velut
appendices istorum dixerim.” This means that the “world” is practically
identical with the Roman State. The same is true of the Roman jurists down
to Justinian. “The Roman lawyers, indeed, usually deal with the matter only
from the point of view of the Roman commonwealth . . . and, after all, the
Empire was to the Roman much the same as the world. The principles which
belonged to it were at least the principles of the civilized world, and their
application to the conditions of the world at large was natural and easy”
{Carlyle, 70).
72b (p* 15°-) Gf. Weinel , p. 61: “In reality it is only the Apologists who speak
in this way (relating the vofioi on both sides to each other), and frequently
they consider the ‘lawgivers’ to be the philosophers quite as much as the
States. There are, however, sufficient descriptive passages. Only the Apologists
in particular are inclined to regard both the legislation of the State and
philosophy as elements and preparatory stages for Christian laws or the Law
of God. They certainly consider these laws of the State both elementary and
ineffective {Justin, /, 12) ; above all, they differ too much from each other
and are often actually opposed to each other, for even ‘harmful things’ are
actually commanded by law {II, 9). Indeed, in part it was the demons which
gave these laws, as indeed pre-Christian idealists like Heraclitus and the
Stoics were constantly persecuted by the authorities {II, <?).” The Apologists
mean that the scientifically educated upper classes are now receiving the Word,
and therefore, as is easy to be understood, ^neither the old hostility nor the
indefiniteness of the Pauline principle is possible any longer.
1
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 193
73 (p. 152.) The passages from Origen form the starting-point both for
Neumann, pp. 234 ff., and for Carlyle, 103 ff. Contra Celsum, V, 3J\ “dvo xoivvv
voptcov 7 rpQK£Lfitsvcov ycvucobg, Kai zov pcev 8vrog zrjg fitfaecog vdjuov , ov 6e6g
dv vo/uoQsrrjcrai , izepov de ro% natg rrokecu yparizov' rcaXov, onov pi&v ptrj
evavziovzat 6 ypairog A dyog vopLoo rep Oeov, (xr\ knrclv zovg troXlzag 7rpo<f>doei
i-ivcov A oycov* evda d& rd ivavrta zcjj ypairzcp vojMp irpograacrei 6 zfjg (ftijoeog
zovzeazi zov 6sov, opa el per} 6 X6yog ipet piatcpav pcev %alpeiv eiirelv zotq
yeypapinhoigN The same contrast, which is entirely usual among Greek
political thinkers ( v . Hirzeh s/ Ay pa<f>og vopLog , p, gi : rjvtKa fi ejy'voig bie~
deapiodsrsi zolg avOpc&TroLg /aovrj } TTpiv zovg ypairzovg elg<f>otzrjoat vopiovg),
recurs in Origen, manifestly as a technical doctrine, frequently ; Contra Celsum ,
VIII , 26 and VIII , 75. Neumann adds a very characteristic passage from the
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans , IX, 26 and 27, which Origen himself
mentions c. C. VIII, 63. Referring to Romans xiii. 1-2, he says: 4 ‘Non est
enim, inquit [Paul], potestas nisi a Deo, dicet fortasse aliquis: quid ergo?
et ilia potestas, quae servos dei persequitur ... a deo est? ad haec breviter
respondemus. 53 The gift of God, the laws, are to be used, not abused. “Erit
autem justum judicium Dei erga eos, qui acceptam potestatem secundum
suas impietates et non secundum divinas temperant leges. . . . Non hie [Paul]
de illis potestatibus dicit, quae persecutiones inferunt fidei : ibi enim dicendum
est, c deo oportet obtemporare magis quam hominibus, sed de istis communibus
dicit 3 . 33 In Origen the idea had a very strong polemical aspect, but one feels
at the same time the possibility of a conservative interpretation. In peace
between Church and State this emerges ever more plainly ; in the West, then,
the influence of Cicero and the jurists becomes increasingly evident. The State
is here regarded as derived from the social impulse of Natural Law, and its
law from the Divine Law of Nature, whereby, of course, the difficulty of the
opposition between the Positive Law and the Natural Law constantly appears.
On this point see below for further observations. The famous passage from
Lactantius in which Cicero’s idea of Natural Law is exalted (Inst., VI, 8), has
already been indicated : “Nec veroaut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac
lege possumus neque est quaerendus explanator aut interpres Sextus Aelius
nec erit alia lex Romae alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia posthac. 33 Also VI, 10:
“Deus . . . animal nos esse voluit sociale . . . causa coeundi ipsa potius
humanitas . . . natura hominum societatis ac communionis appetens ( VI, ir),
conservanda igitur est humanitas [Nature as the founder of the fellowship of
the State and of its laws] . . . discordia igitur ac dissensio non est secundum
hominis rationem verumque illud est Ciceronis, quod ait hominem naturae
oboedientem homini nocere non posse. 33 This is the nature of the true Jus and
the true justitia. Epitome Inst., 33: “Si enim nos idem Deus fecit et universos
ad justitiam vitamque aeternam pari condicione genera vit, fraterna utique
necessitudine cohaeremus. 33 It is, however, the error of the philosophers and
the jurists that they measure this societas jut is only by its earthly use and not
its heavenly purpose. The same criticism, half agreement and half improvement,
is exercised by Inst., 3, 8, on the conception of the naturae convenienter vivere.
Likewise Augustine: De civ., XIX, 12: “Homo fertur quodam modo naturae suae
legibus ad ineundam societatem pacemque cum hominibus quantum in ipso
est, omnibus obtenendam. 33 De bono conjugali , I: “Unusquisque homo humani
generis pars est et sociale quiddam est natura magnumque habet et naturale
bonum. 33 Deciv., XIX , 3: “Quod autem socialem vitam volunt esse sapientis,
nos multo amplius approbamus. De lib. arb ., 6: “Nihil est in lege temporal!
justum, quod ex lege aeterna non derivetur. 33 De vera religione , 31 ; “Conditor
VOL* 1. N
f 94 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
legum temporalium, si vir bonus est et sapiens, illamipsam consulit aeternam,
de qua nulli animae judicare datum est, ut secundum ejus immutabiles regulas
quid sit pro tempore jubendum vetandumve discernat. 55 Contra Fausium , 22, 7:
4 Tex vero aeterna est ratio divina aut voluntas Dei ordinem naturalem con-
servari jubens perturbari vetans. 55 Property rights are valid through the law
of the Empire, but ultimately they come from God, from whom these rights
are derived, mediated through princes. Reuter: Augustirdsche Studien , 1887,
p . 382. Be civ., II, 21, 2 , A. accepts Cicero’s definition of the State’s
“populum non omnem coetum multi tudinis, sed coetum juris consensu et
utilitatis communione sociatum esse 55 as a summary, then (19, 21), he refers to
this again, and, although he accepts the idea, he denies that according to
him pagan Rome was a real State, since with its paganism and its horrors
real justitia was lacking, but this is only the condemnation of the Positive Law,
which is opposed to Nature. In other passages he estimates the Natural-Law
content of the Roman laws, which still exists in spite of all, much more highly.
He gives his own definition, ig, 24: “Populus est coetus multitudinis rationalis,
rerum quas diligit concord! communione sociatus. 55 Here justitia is omitted
because he considered that that was too absolute, but the ratio idea was left
because this can be regarded as more or less ; for the populus is “tanto utique
melior, quanto in melioribus, tantoque deterior quanto in deterioribus concor. 5 5
Thus he is willing even to call the pagan State of Rome a State “quamdiumanet
qualiscunque rationalis multitudinis coetus 55 . The interesting passage, Bediversis
quaestionibus,3i , merges entirely into the usual teaching of the Fathers with regard
to the Law of Nature : ‘ ‘Justitia est habitus animi communi utilitate conservaia
suam cuique tribuens dignitatem. Ejus initium est ab natura profectum. deinde
quaedam in consuetudinem ex utilitatis ratione venerunt: postea res et ab
natura profectas et a consuetudine probatas legum metus et religio sanxit.
Natura jus est, quod non opinio genuit, sed quaedam innata vis inseruit ut
religionem pietatem, gratiam, vindicationem, observantiam, veritatem. 55 Thus
the elements of truth in pagan religion, morality, and law are referred back to
Nature. The written law is derived from the unwritten sphere; “Quod genus
pactum est, par, lex, judicatum. 55 — The sources of all that are contained in
the Greek doctrine of the vofiog dypapog, v. Hirzel, and above all in the teaching
of Cicero, Seneca, and the Roman jurists who were influenced by the Stoics ;
on this subject, see Carlyle, I, i—y8 ,* K. Hildenbrand: Geschichte und System der
Rechts - und Staatsphilosophie, I, i860; Ivl. Voigt: Bie Lekre vom jus naturale der Romer,
1856; Zelinsky: Cicero im Wandel der Jahrhunderte , i8gj . While the State was
pagan, however, the Fathers found it much more difficult to prove that the
Positive Law was derived from the Law of Nature ; this produced many incon-
sistencies in the expression of their views on this subject, especially in Augustine.
After the State had become Christian, however, this doctrine made a very
conservative attitude possible. With the Code of Justinian and the definitions
of Isidore of Seville, the doctrine passed into the Middle Ages for Justinian,
see Carlyle , /, 71—79, passages from Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, Hilarius, and
especially Isidore, ibid., /, 104— no ; C£ St. Isidore has obviously reproduced, with
certain changes of detail, the theory of the tripartite character of law (jus
naturale) as the pure, primitive Law of Nature, jus civile as the special form of
the Law of Nature in the positive law, which we have already seen in the
works ofUlpian, and in the Institutes of Justinian. With this work the concep-
tion passes into the common stock of mediaeval tradition 55 (. no ).
74 (p. 153.) The doctrine of the pure Law bf Nature of the Primitive State,
with freedom and equality even to the extent of affecting the intimacies of
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 195
family life, is the general doctrine of the later Fathers, which became prominent
when the argument which held that the existing State was derived from the
Law of Nature necessitated stress being laid upon the contrast between this
condition of affairs and the pure Law of Nature in the Primitive State. There
are illustrative passages in Overbeck : Sklaverei, 198-201; Uhlhorn: Liebestdtigkeit ,
/, 292/.; Carlyle , I, 111-146; Sommerlad, 99-170; in great detail according to
Theodoret,$p. 165 ff. It is always questions about property, slavery, the authority
of the family and of the State which lead to this point. For the teaching of the
Stoics, which also underlies these ideas, see Hirzel, 84-91; Pohlmann ; Gesch. d.
antiken Kommmismus , II, 607-61 4, and especially Carlyle , /, 1-92, on Cicero and
Seneca. Cicero maintains the view that the Primitive State was a state of
complete equality and perfection from which the present system with its
slavery, property, power, and the law of the State has only arisen out of a
gradual process of deterioration. In the opinion of Seneca the Primitive State
was not so much perfect as capable of becoming perfect, but in any case it
was characterized by innocence and childlike happiness and had no element
of compulsion in it. In the course of development sin appeared, but alongside
of it there arose the order of the State, which is derived from the Law of Nature,
opposes sin, and is a remedy against sin and a means of attaining a better
condition. The theory of the Roman lawyers on this question, which was of
extreme importance for the thought of the Fathers, is of great interest. They
derive positive law first of all simply from the jus naturale , but, confronted with
the problem of the reasonableness of the prevailing laws, especially those
governing slavery, and perhaps also those about property, they came to the
opinion that reason did not predominate in them, and that indeed reason
(and with that the jus naturale) can only have been supreme in a better Primitive
State, together with the natural equality of all human beings endowed with
reason. Therefore they make a clear distinction between the pure and absolute
jus naturale and the obscured, relative Natural Law, or the jus gentium , which
forms part of the order in which conditions have deteriorated. Positive law, or
jus civile , is then the positive form of the clouded law of reason in empirical law.
This theory, then, simply passed on into the Corpus Justinianeum and into the
literature of the Fathers; cf. the previous note. Carlyle , I, 33-79. Inst., II, i, ii:
“Palam est autem vetustius esse naturale jus, quod cum ipso genere humano
rerum natura prodidit; civilia enim jura tunc demum coeperunt, cum et
civitates condi et magistratus creari et leges scribi coeperunt.” Inst. I, 2, 2:
“Jus gentium omni humano generi commune est. Nam usu exigente et humanis
necessitatibus gentes humanae quaedam sibi constituerunt ; bella enim orta
sunt et captivitates secutae et servitutes, quae sunt juri naturali contrariae.
Jure enim naturali ab initio omnes homines liberi nascebantur. Ex hoc jure
gentium et omnes paene contractus introducti sunt ut emptio, venditio,
locatio, conductio, societas, depositum, mutuum et alii innumerabiles.”
75 (p* I 55*) Iwnaeus adv. haer. (Harvey), V, 24 with reference to the story of the
Temptation ; The Devil lies, the riches of this world do not belong to him but
to God, who allowed them to arise after the Fall, in order to create within
lawless and selfish humanity at least a certain remedy for sin. Likewise Lactantius:
Inst . Epit., 34: the Fall has destroyed the “societas inter se hominum”, the
“vinculum necessitudinis”. Then men formed laws “pro utilitate communi,
ut se interim tutos ab injuriis facer ent”. This is the theory which is common to
Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Isidore ( Carlyle , 1 , 130). Augustine
especially is to be understood ^ln this sense, as also Reuter: Aug . Studien , 138
emphasizes. Reuter points out in detail that for Augustine the State was, it is
i 9 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
true, according to the absolute standard, a product of sin which is opposed to
the Primitive State, but that according to the relative standard the State
does still possess a certain value of reason, and in this relative value there is
a reaction of reason conditioned in its form by sin. De civ., 19, si in connection
with Cicero: Domination and lack of freedom do not exclude reasonable
righteousness, “ideo justum esse, quod talibus hominibus sit utilis servitus et
proutilitateeorum fieri, cum recle fit, id est cum improbis aufertur injuriarum
licentia” ; slavery is the result of the change which was caused by the Fall and
likewise a penalty, “verum et poenalis servitus ea lege ordinatur, quae naturalem
ordinem conservari jubet perturbari vetat: quia si contra earn legem non esset
factum, nihil esset poenali servitute coercendum”. Hence slaves ought to
serve willingly, “donee transeat iniquitas et evacuetur omnis principatus et
potestas humana et sit Deus omnia in omnibus”. Quite rightly Reuter points
out that the overestimate of the well-known description of the State as grande
latrocinium , IV, 4 , is really a general argument that the State is derived from
sin: “A. believes that the State would resemble a latrocinium if justitia were not
in some way or another operative within it ; in one passage [IV, 4] he calls
that which is not a State, a State, while in another place [the definition
according to Cicero, 19, si , which has already been mentioned] he proves
positively that the State only exists where the physical power is at least com-
paratively controlled by justitia, which is itself only relative [in comparison
with the justitiae veritas •]” (139). All this would never have been questioned if
regard had been paid to Augustine in connection with the Christian and
Stoic-juridical doctrines of Natural Law. Also in connection with Augustine
one has to remember that his experiences of the State under Honorius could
scarcely incline him to err in the direction of exalting the Natural-Law aspect
of the State too highly, that De civitate is a polemical work directed against the
heathen, with the greatest possible depreciation of their State, and that the
anti-Donatist writings against the Donatist rejection of the intervention of the
State emphasize more strongly the positive aspect of Augustine’s doctrine of
the State; there, however, he is thinking certainly of the Christian State,
which strengthens the natural elements of righteousness within the State by
the energy of true Christian righteousness. — I add some passages from Carlyle :
Gregory the Great , Exp. moralis in Job . xxi. 15: “Omnes homines natura aequales
sumus, sed accessit dispensatorio ordine, ut quibusdam praelati videamur . . .
variante meritorum ordine [i.e. with the Fall] alios aliis dispensatio occulta
postponit.” — Isidore Sententiae , 47 : “Propter peccatum primi hominis humano
generi poena divinitus illata est servitutis, ita ut quibus aspicit non congruere
libertatem, his misericordius irroget servitutem , . . aequus Deus ideo dis-
crevit hominibus vitam, alios servos constituens alios dominos, ut licentia male
agendi servorum potestate dominiantium restringatur. . . . Inde et in gentibus
principes regesque electi sunt, ut terrore suo populos a malo coercerent atque
ad recte vivendum legibus subderent.” Only now do we see clearly why it was
that there could be no idea of social reform at all. — For corresponding expres-
sions in Cicero and especially plainly in Seneca, see Carlyle , I, is and 25. Also
the juridical distinction between the jus gentium and the jus naturale has the
same meaning {ibid., 60 ). — From the point of view of Dante’s doctrine of the
State Vossler also has recognized this character of Augustine’s doctrine of the
State, and has described it as the starting-point of a positive estimate: “The
same State which through its origin is a sinful organization becomes in its
aim an organization against sin” (Gottliche Koifiodie, I, 378).
76 (p. 158.) Cf. Carlyle , /, 63-78, 147-193, to whom I owe the decisive point
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 197
of view that in the theory of the Fathers the Emperor was outside and apart
from the point of view of the Natural-Law construction of the State; this was
not the case in the theory of the philosophical jurists. Hence Reuter also treats
the question of the relation of the authority of the Christian Emperors to the
Church as a particular problem, quite apart from the general problems of the
State. Aug. Studien, pp. 141-152. Reuter is only wrong, however, when he argues
that this constitutes the basis of the theory of the “Christian State”, and that
from this point of view also only the “Natural Law” estimate of the State is
suggested. The latter has nothing to do with the Christian character of the
State, which consisted only in the dominant position which the Emperor gave
to the Church, which, then, from its own standpoint effected the Christianiza-
tion of the State, i.e. the transformation of its outlook. It is thus true to say
that “the State only became a true State to the extent in which it became
Christian’ 5 — that is, to the extent in which the Emperor became serviceable to
the Church. The ideal of the true State was then precisely no longer measured
by the Law of Nature, but by the believing community. At this point Augustine,
with his high ideal of the state of grace and of the Love of God, as well as
with his extreme view of the corruption wrought by sin, never inwardly
adopted the theories of Natural Law as thoroughly as the other Fathers of the
Church. But even in their arguments there remains the hiatus between the
Stoic and the Christian ideas, which, although they were akin to each other,
were still different. In view of Augustine’s pessimism about the actual State
the former elements are not fully effective. The latter can only find room to
breathe (while the “world” is left to the care of the State) by demanding a
privileged position and the sole supremacy of the Church; but a Christian
State, and even an economic programme, this is not — as Sommerlad {pp. 213-
216) seems to think, although he rightly emphasizes the illogical nature of
Augustine’s theories of the Law of Nature. This was only developed from that
by the Middle Ages. The argument that Augustine’s theocratic doctrine was
a reaction against the Natural-Law-equalitarian-ascetic reaction which is
supposed to have been the meaning of the social doctrines of the fourth century
against the feudal development of Society, and that this means that the secular
realm is once more brought under the control of the spiritual authority through
the power of the Church, is a great exaggeration, but it contains in my opinion
a germ of truth. — See Carlyle , /, 64, for the doctrine of the jurists about the
democratic origin of the Imperial authority, also in the Corpus Justinianeum ,
p. 169; the absolutist doctrine, 69 ff. — Henceforward my presentation of the
subject merges into the well-known representations of the theocratic domination
of the Church over the State, which, however, often give a wrong colour to the
doctrine of the Fathers on the State, because they speak of the State simply as
a product of sin, which is not the straightforward view of the Fathers them-
selves at all. Also we must not forget the difference between the East — where
theocracy meant that the Church was made a department of the State — and
the West — where the Church, on the contrary, claims the subordination of the
State, or, rather, of the reigning prince.
77 (p. 160.) The importance of the doctrine of the relation of the Lex naturae
to the Lex Christi has always naturally been stressed as a fundamental dogma.
It is perfectly correlated to the general distinction between Reason and
Revelation, and only directs this distinction towards the side of the construction
of a practical structure of Society as a whole ; cf. the article on Gesetz by
Wirtkmidler in the Catholic “ I&rchenlexikon 2 ” by Wetzer and Welte; Lehmkuhl:
Theologia moralis 9 /, 39-139; Ottiger: Theologia fundamentalist /, 37-147; Cathrein:
198 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Moralphilosophie 3 , i8gg ( 1 , 313, on Augustine and the Ancient World; I P 483 , on
Isidore of Seville), and the clear popular work of the Jesuit Theodor Meyer:
Die christhch-ethischen Sozidprinzipien und die Arbeiterfrage, 1304 (the social question
illustrated by Stimmen aus Maria Laach, Heft I ) ; here the difference between the
absolute and the relative Law of Nature is clearly unfolded (j>. 40 ), and
characterized as the fundamental condition of an ecclesiastical cultural and
social doctrine, “of the moral organism of Society”, “the religious and Natural
Law guarantee” (p. 67), whereby “religious” here means theocratic. Gierke also,
in his magnificent work, has clearly recognized the importance of these con-
ceptions, and in his no less fine book on Althusms he has described the process
of the severance of the ancient Stoic-juridical elements and their development
into a position of independence, and with that then their transition into the
modern liberal Law of Nature. Protestant theologians, however, are almost
all practically blind on this subject. They regard the Christian nature of the
State and of Society as something which is so obvious that they have no idea of
or eye for the toilsome and devious ways along which the Early Church, the
Mediaeval Church, and their own Protestant forefathers had to travel before
they could secure these ideas on a firm basis. All they can talk about is the
“hallowing and permeation of the world with the ideals of Christ”, which they
suppose to be the meaning of the Gospel and of the Pauline doctrine of faith :
they then explain the fact that this “social-cultural” tendency came to grief,
partly (with Uhlhorn ) owing to the condition of the pagan world, which had
become rigid and impervious to influence, partly (with the generality of writers)
from the fact that the Gospel ideal was destroyed by the Catholic emphasis
upon a holiness consisting in “works”, asceticism and the exaltation of the
Church, or even by the corruption of the pure conception of faith by spiritual
and mystical idealism, and by a realistic doctrine of Redemption, which was
very close to the ideas of the ancient mystery cults. Also, with their antithesis
of faith and law, in the conception of law the whole idea of a definite content
and a concrete tendency of the Christian ethos has been lost so entirely that
for them the whole of the Christian ethos is exhausted in denunciation of good
works, and in the right definition of the grace which imparts moral energy,
but, on the side of content, it is entirely indefinite. That even the historians of
dogma are to a very great extent uncertain on the whole doctrine of the
Law of Nature, because they do not understand the part it plays in solving
the problem of the “world” and of “social life”, I have shown in my study of
Seeb erg’s Dogmengeschichte. Gott. Gelehrte Anzeigen , 1303 .
78 (p. 162.) This doctrine of equality, even for the Primitive State, was,
however, not accepted without question. Even in the Primitive State Augustine
accepts the idea that there were differences of disposition and of talents, which
produced conditions of voluntary subordination in right proportion (passages
in Overbeck , 200; Quaest. in genesin, 5 3) with the ethical effects of these conditions
of authority and subordination. In the fallen State this subordination becomes
compulsory and often twisted, because brute-force often controls reason, which
in itself is stronger and better for the work of government. Carlyle , /, 127 quotes
a passage from Gregory: Ep . 7 , 59, where the same is asserted, and the sinless
angels are adduced as examples: “Quia vero creatura in una eademque
aequalitate gubernari vel vivere non potest, caelestium militarium exemplar
nos instruit, quia, dum sunt angeli et sunt archangeli, liquet, quia non aequalas
sunt, sed in potestate et ordine sicut nostris differt alter ab altero. Si ergo inter
hos, qui sine peccato sunt, ista constat esse fiistinctio, quis hominum abnuat
huic se libenter dispositioni submittere, cui novit etiam angelos obedire.”
THE FOUNDATIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH 199
Here the Pauline patriarchalism emerges against the entirely unchristian idea
of an abstract equality. Since the idea of equality is so important, the whole
subject is worthy of further research being given to it.
79 (p. 163.) Cf. the excellent study by von Schubert: Lehrbuch d. KG . 2 , I, 785-813,
also Uhlhorn , f, 332-354* The Lutheran here confesses: “Even although at
first in small groups, detached from the life of the rest of the world, the New
Testament idea of labour was here first realized. Men work because God has
commanded it, everyone does his part in the common task, work and prayer
are combined, work and rest alternate, and the aim of this labour is not merely
the selfish aim of gaining something for oneself, but it is the unselfish aim of
earning something in order to be able to serve others with it” (p, 347 ). One
only ought to add that these callings consisted solely in spiritual and scientific
activity, and the simplest form of handwork, and that their profits were
supplemented by the generosity of the supporters and friends of the monasteries,
and kept at the level of a strictly low minimum of necessity for existence. The
other callings which are absolutely necessary for the general life of the world
are here absent, and are exercised by others. Violent contrasts between the
Christians who do business in the world and the ascetics described in the
Gallic Church (Hauck: K.G . Deutschlands 3 , 1304 , /, 53-go ) ; here also it is clear
that the ascetics come in from the outside, and that the congregations them-
selves do not spontaneously produce exclusive asceticism, but that, once they
are present, the ascetics know how to prove quite logically that their path is the
only right one. On the duty of work and the dignity of labour in the monas-
teries, and the influence which this had on the conception of work in general,
see Ratzinger: Armenpfiege , pp. gg-102. — For the importance of monasticism for
the creation of Ghristian schools, see the same book ; on this point I have also
received information from Herr von Schubert in private conversation.
80 (p. 202.) This difference between the Middle Ages and the Early Church
is generally known and recognized; see Hauck: K.G. Deutschlands , I, 116;
Uhlhorn: Liebestatigkeit, II, 5: “To the Ancient World as a whole, and apart
from individual Christian personalities, Christianity was at bottom always
something external. The pagan past, the cultural life of the ancient peoples
which was permeated and steeped in paganism, proved impenetrable for the
Christian spirit. Only the Germanic peoples became in reality Christian
peoples. Seized by Christianity while they were still young, they grew up with
it, and all their civilization was mediated to them through the Church; and as
they themselves had a stronger hold on Christianity than the Greeks and
Romans who had grown old in paganism, so also Christianity in all its forms
of expression dominated them to a degree which was never attained either in
Rome or in Byzantium.” P. 7: “Actually the awakening which began at
Cluny in the tenth century constitutes the turning-point for the decisive
victory of Christianity.” Harnack: Wesen des Christentums , p* 153: “What has
the Roman Catholic Church achieved? She has educated the Latin and
Germanic peoples, in another sense it is true, from the way in which this was
effected by the Oriental Church for the Greeks, the Slavs, and the Orientals.
Their original disposition, elementary and historical conditions among those
peoples, may have made this process easier, and may have helped to accelerate
it, but the achievement of the Church is no less meritorious. She brought a
Christian civilization to the youthful nations (whence?), and she did not
merely bring it to them and then leave them at the lowest stage of development ;
she gave them the power of developing this gift, and for nearly a thousand
years she herself guided and controlled this development and progress.”
200 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Sell: Kaiholizismus und Protestantismus in Geschichte, Religion , Politik , und Kultur,
xgo8, p. 36: “The progress of the mediaeval stage of Catholicism consists in this,
that here Christianity did not form an alliance with a civilization which is
already made, as in the Early Church, but that Catholic Christianity became
the basis of the whole of Western civilization, since it penetrated into the
spiritual substance of the Germanic Latin peoples everywhere with trans-
forming effect.” Ehrhard: Der Kaiholizismus und das 20. Jahrhundert, igo2 , p. 24:
“Out of this combination of the new Germanic-Roman Empire, with its
specific natural and cultural disposition, with the spirit of the Latin Church,
a new era was born, which had an influence upon actual events which cannot
be estimated, so vast was its range. This wealth of facts, however, was controlled
by a series of inner factors and elements which constitute the characteristic
signs of the Christian Middle Age: (1) The union of the Papacy and the
Empire as the two highest representatives of Christendom, and the universalism
of the Middle Ages which was determined by this fact. (2) The mutual penetra-
tion of the political system of the State and of the life of the Catholic Church,
and the synergism between Church and State which this produces. (3) The
sole supremacy of the Christian and ecclesiastical spirit in all realms of the
higher life of civilization.” P. 35: “It is to the immortal credit of Gregory the
Seventh that he took up the cudgels on behalf of the liberty of the Church,
and therefore prepared the way for the complete release of the energies which
were bound up within the Church. . . . There now developed the flowering
time of the Christian civilization of the Middle Ages, which lasted for two
centuries, and which bore ripe fruit of abiding value within all spheres of the
higher life of culture.” The inner difficulties which were caused within this
process by the nature of the Christianity of the Early Church are very largely
underestimated in these works. Von Eicken ; Geschichte und System der Mittel -
alterlichen Weltanschauung , 1887 , makes these difficulties the main theme of his
book. His view, that the overcoming of these difficulties was due to the reception
of the Roman idea of a world empire, through the ascetic-hierarchical Church,
which alone through a political sovereignty could force the world for its good,
I cannot accept as true. Of this more anon. I would only remark here that all
the universal tendencies of the Church, and all the tendencies in the direction
of subduing the world, proceed from the dogmatic conception of truth, and
from the influence of the sacraments, in which alone is there salvation, as also
Houck shows : I, 552#., II, no, 502, 335; von Schubert ; K.G . , /, 726, 730. It is the
sociology of the religious idea which here predominates, the dialectic of
thought and not of historical accident, which here von Eicken uses in striking
contrast with his otherwise purely dialectic construction. But it is precisely at
this point that there is no accident. So far as the law and ideal of the Roman
Empire is accepted, it takes place as an integral part of the completely inde-
pendent ecclesiastical tendency of evolution. — For the Catholic unity of
civilization as the work of the Middle Ages, see also Mausbach: Christentum und
Weltmoral, 1905, where this ideal of Catholicism according to St. Thomas is
pertinently described, while the problem which it contains for Christian
thought itself is characteristically treated in a superficial way. My treatment
of the subject will show, above all, that this Catholic unity of civilization,
regarded from the historical or from the systematic point of view, is not the
obvious “flowering” of the Christian idea.
CHAPTER II
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
i. THE PROBLEM
The Mediaeval Principle of Unity
In the Ancient World the sociological connection of Christian
thought was worked out in the sacerdotal and sacramental organ-
ization of the Church — an organization which was endowed with
grace and with miraculous power. It thus united in one social
organism both the absolute individualism and the universalism
of the Gospel. Within this social organism each individual, by
submission to the institution which imparted grace, could obtain
a share in eternal salvation. The spirit of individualism was,
however, considerably restricted, both by the action of the
authorities who guaranteed salvation, and by hierarchical
organizations within the body of the Church, as well as by the
patriarchal teaching on submission and adaptation to the existing
institutions within the world.
It is impossible to ascertain in detail to what extent, from this
point, men evolved a fundamental sociological theory, and an
ideal which could be applied to all the conditions of human life.
In any case, the Church did not attempt to regulate the condi-
tions and institutions in the world outside her own borders from
the point of view of an ideal of this kind. On the whole, she
accepted the conditions of the world, and adjusted herself to
them by means of the theory of relative Natural Law. To those
who could not accept this compromise monasticism offered a
safety-valve, which, however, for that very reason had no clear and
logical relation with the Church ; indeed, only too often it simply
disturbed the conscience of the Church. Thus the attitude of the
Church towards the State and towards Society was peculiar. It
contained a variety of elements : the recognition of Natural Law,
theocratic subjugation and exploitation, the support of the
State, whose powers were not equal to its task, by the Church,
and the rejection of the State and of Society in general, which
worked itself out in the theory of the sinfulness of all the institu-
tions of relative Natural Law and in the practice of renunciation
of the world. Neither in theory nor in practice was there any
inwardly uniform Christian civilization; the whole idea was
foreign to the Ancient Work!.
The vital difference between the Middle Ages and the period
202 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the Primitive Church was this : The Church of the mediaeval
period did know this ideal, both in practice, and, still more, in
theory, and, as an ideal, with some adjustments to modern require-
ments, its theory is still operative to-day in all the social teaching
of contemporary Catholicism . 80
This ideal of a Christian unity of civilization, however, was also
carried forward into early Protestantism, which to a large extent
maintained it by the same methods w r ith which the mediaeval
period had learned to establish it and to carry it into practice.
Even in modern Protestantism, which is so entirely different, this
ideal is still retained as a natural fundamental theory which only
needs to be placed upon a new basis.
The problem can be stated quite simply. It Is this : How was
this ideal evolved during the Middle Ages, out of the tradition of
the Primitive Church, out of the new situation, and out of the
new intellectual movements? And what form did it now assume?
The significance of this question is underestimated by all those
who already ascribe to the Primitive Church, or to Christianity in
general, this striving after a unity of Christian civilization. The
whole of our inquiry up to this point, however, proves that this
assumption is unwarranted.
Rather, it is clear that in Stoicism and in Platonism, and still
more in Christianity, a theory of social life and of civilization,
founded upon the values of free personality in union with God,
and of universal human fellowship, was only established with the
greatest difficulty. Christianity in particular had created, it is
true, a powerful, purely religious organization which was also
hostile towards the world ; within herself she was able to arrange
conditions of life fairly well in accordance with Christian prin-
ciples, but so far as the world outside was concerned she was
unable to find any connection or point of contact.
After all, it is not so simple to build up a civilization and a
society upon the supernatural values of the love of God and of
the brethren. The self-denial and renunciation of the world
which are connected with the former, and the renunciation of the
claim on justice and force which are connected with the latter,
are not principles of civilization, but radical and universal
religious and ethical ideas, which are only absorbed with difficulty
into the aims of the secular structure, and into the protective
measures which the struggle for existence has produced.
The social ideals of Platonism and of Stoicism remained pure
Utopias, and, in spite of all their afljnities with Christian ideas,
80 Seep. 199,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 203
they were really much closer to the popular and civic life of the
Ancient World; their idealistic theories only had the effect of
making clear the difference of their outlook from the ordinary
course of the life of the world.
When Christianity was in a condition to establish its ideal
State, the Church, upon a purely religious basis, it was still only
with difficulty that it was able to reconcile that which was possible
upon this basis with the rest of the life of Society.
The Middle Ages, however, witnessed the expansion of the
Church to a comprehensive, unifying, and reconciling social
whole, which included both the sociological circle of religion
itself and the politico-social organizations. In its own way, there-
fore, it realized in practice the ideal of the Republic of Plato,
conceived as an individual State —that is, the rule of wise and
God-fearing men over a unified Society, built up organically in
ranks, and also the ideal of the Stoics, whose universal common-
wealth was to embrace the whole of mankind, without distinction,
in one universal ethical kingdom.
The programme which the declining Ancient World had up-
held in Platonism, Stoicism, and Christianity as a new ideal of
humanity, and which, in the combination of these three ten-
dencies, it had only been able to realize in a very limited manner,
now overcame the obstacles which confronted it, and, to some
extent at least, it achieved a relative realization. Thus the problem
presented by the Middle Ages is one of great historical significance ;
it is also of importance for all modern historical social doctrines,
which, in general, have a closer connection with mediaeval ideas
than with those of the Primitive Church.
Here, however, it is quite impossible to survey the whole of this
rich and infinitely varied period of the Middle Ages from this
point of view. All that concerns us is to indicate the main points
in the result of this history, which in the form of Thomism was
taken over by the future, and came to be regarded as the classical
doctrine. The necessity of explaining Thomism, however, leads
us back to the general conditions of the Middle Ages ; for it was
these conditions alone which, silently and surely, determined the
doctrine of St. Thomas (d. 1274), and indeed made it possible.
For it is perfectly plain that St. Thomas is related to the whole
problem in the way which we indicated in the introduction — a
conclusion which the rest of the inquiry has only confirmed.
The Christian social doctrines presuppose, first of all, a definite
conception of the Christian religious community, in which the
religious idea works itself out directly in a sociological form.
204 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
So far as the social doctrines in the narrower sense are concerned,
this question then arises: How far is this fellowship (which is
regarded as so comprehensive and so penetrating) actually
realized in practice? Does it succeed in bringing under the sway
of the sociological fundamental theory which it has produced and
realized, all the other forms of social life? Or is it only able to
come to a working agreement with them, as with foreign pheno-
mena lying outside its own sphere?
The fact that the Thomist social philosophy undertakes the
former task presupposes, in the first place, an enormous develop-
ment of the sociological organism of Christian thought, and, in the
second place, the possibility of dominating the whole from the
point of view of the sociological fundamental theory which it has
developed. This, however, assumes that a universal Christian
civilization, in harmony with the Church, is already in existence,
which alone makes it possible to incorporate particular social
formations into the spirit of the whole.
The problem, then, is this: How did St. Thomas come to
accept such an assumption? And only when that has been
answered can we put the further question : How did he actually
develop his social doctrines from these principles? The weak
point in most of the works which deal with this subject is the lack
of any sense that the existence of this assumption constitutes the
real problem; most writers plunge into the subject at once, and
begin to expound the Thomist doctrines themselves. 80a Yet the
most real, the most difficult, and also the most instructive problem
lies in the question of how this assumption came into existence.
In it are focused all the special conditions of the Middle Ages :
all the political, social, and economic movements, those also
which affect Church history or the history of religion, in addition
to intellectual and scientific movements; it is only because these
various currents were thus pooled together that that assumption
could be created. Its practical realization, even though it may be
only approximate, is therefore also bound up with the continu-
ance or restoration of these conditions, and all attempts to carry
out the social doctrines of Catholicism without this foundation
will lead either to impossibilities, or to important alterations in
the doctrines themselves . 81
The task of our inquiry, therefore, will be to show how, under
the new conditions, the sociological development of the Christian
80a See p. 383.
81 On this point in general, cf. Sell : Katholizismup und Protestantismus , pp, 159- 193 •>
is. in my opinion, too optimistic.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 205
system itself was achieved, how as a result the characteristic
alienation between the Church and the world disappeared,
making room for a mutual inward penetration, and how from
that development there sprang the ideal of an all-embracing
international ecclesiastical civilization.
From that standpoint alone will it be possible to present the
social doctrines of Thomism in their main features. The post-
Thomist doctrines of the later Middle Ages reveal the decay of
mediaeval society and of its social doctrine, and prepare the way
for modern conditions ; in that respect, however, they go beyond
the limits of our subject. They belong to the history of the rise
of modern society and of its theories. For that reason we will deal
only with that opposition to the official ecclesiastical social
philosophy which sets up essentially Christian ideas of a narrower
kind over against the widespread official teaching of the world of
society, which form a basis for the sects of the later Middle Ages
and of the Reformation period. It will become clear that these
sects and their social ethic develop a type of Christian social
doctrine which is peculiar to themselves, alongside of the ecclesias-
tical type and its social doctrines. In contrast with the lowering of
the Christian standard in the ecclesiastical unity of civilization,
in them there emerges the radicalism of the Christian social ethic,
and the tendency to form small groups in which it is possible to
carry this radicalism into practice.
This, however, throws an important light upon Christian social
doctrine as a whole. The Thomist ecclesiastical unity of civiliza-
tion is only one of its possibilities of development ; alongside of it
there stands the other radical possibility, which is connected with
the Gospel, with absolute Natural Law, and with monasticism.
These tendencies, which in the Primitive Church were mingled
and obscure, now diverge in different directions.
Social Theory influenced by
Historical Events
From the outset, however, one point must be kept in mind.
We are dealing, it is true, with the history of the social philosophy
of the Church, with a doctrine, with an idea. But history of this
kind does not, on that account, need to be treated purely as a
process of dialectic. However largely original ideas may have
their own dialectic consequence and development, whose evolu-
tion has been caused partly by the inner impulse to formulate
the content of their thought', partly by the necessity of answering
new and urgent problems which arise in practical life, still the
20 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
fundamental ideas in the great fruitful systems of life are not
simple and uniform; rather, to a great extent, they themselves
are already the result of a complex. On the other hand, in the
unending and involved interplay of various forces, as Eduard
Meyer so aptly puts it , 83 everywhere we have to take into account
the element of accident and surprise, i.e. the clash of independent
causal sequences, which have no inner connection with each
other. Both these elements are strongly marked in the history
which we are studying in this book. Already it has been clearly
shown that Christian thought, with its inclusion of supernatural
and natural, with its rich conception of God which combines the
ideas of the Creation and world-optimism with Redemption and
world-pessimism, is itself a complex structure, containing many
elements of tension ; this fact will emerge anew, with fresh signifi-
cance, in our study of the development of mediaeval thought.
Likewise the interpenetration of the sacred and the secular,
which was possible in the Middle Ages, cannot be explained as
the result of intellectual dialectic impulses of development, but
out of the actual pressure of events ; for no dialectic exists, which,
from the standpoint of Christian thought, would itself have been
in a position to lay down a programme of this kind ; here we have
to do with the effect of the possibilities and necessities, which the
actual course of affairs in the development of social life outside
the Church brought into the ecclesiastical organization.
This ideal must have grown up out of universal changes, which,
perfected in silence, were looked upon as quite natural and
obvious ; and that is the reason why that which was impossible in
the Early Church now became possible, and that which did not
even exist as an ideal in the mind of the Primitive Church now
became a goal of aspiration and desire. Finally, in spite of the
development of a unity of civilization under conditions yet to be
described which were peculiarly favourable to it, the question
still remains: To what extent, in this situation, was Christian
thought only able to utilize favourable circumstances for its
realization? Or how far was the unity achieved because Christian
thought, for its part, was adapting itself to the newer influences?
Above all, we must be on our guard against a tendency of the
theologians— upon whose otherwise excellent and sometimes
brilliant researches, together with the researches of jurists,
secular historians, and political economists, the following study
has for the most part been based— the tendency to discover
everywhere either deformations of ordeviations from the Gospel,
82 Cf. Eduard Meyer: Z ur Theorie und Methodik der Geschichte > igos , pp. iyff»
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 207
or to discern everywhere foreshadowings of and preparations for
the Reformation solution of the problem. Ranke’s deep and
suggestive saying, that “every historical epoch has its own direct
significance in the sight of God”, might aptly be applied to this
question; it might, indeed, be extended in this direction, in order
to include the idea that each epoch is in the direct Presence of
God, both in its greatness and its truth, and in its unfaithfulness
to its better self. Mediaeval religion and its social doctrines are
neither a perversion of the “essence of Christianity”, nor a phase
of development serving other ends of Christian thought, but an
expression of the religious consciousness corresponding to the
general social structure, with its own advantages and truths, and
its own faulty and terrible side. Mediaeval religion, and its corre-
sponding form of social philosophy, should be understood first of
all as they are In themselves; we ought only to consider their
connection with tradition in so far as they drew from it, for their
own need, the necessary historical nourishment and stimulus.
The religious life, even that of Christianity, in each of its great
forms is something new and different, and must first of all be
understood as an independent phenomenon. The further problem
of connecting this phenomenon with a united and universal ideal
is one which lies beyond the borders of pure history . 83
2. EARLY SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS AS THE BASIS FOR THE
MEDIAEVAL UNITY OF CIVILIZATION
Development of the Ecclesiastical Institution
The first question with which we have to deal is the develop-
ment of the Church itself. This is always the primary concern of
Christianity; only after this has been entirely and satisfactorily
established can social questions be considered. In this respect the
essential foundations of Catholicism had already been firmly
established in the Ancient World ; at the same time, however, the
settlement of these fundamental problems still contained some
open questions for the future. The Christian congregations which
were held together by their common opposition to the State and
to the world, and which also represented a minority, had been
until then firmly knit together by the pressure of the hostile
majority. When, however, these communities passed into the
88 Cf. my discussion with Loisy ^nd Harnack: Was heisst Wesen des Christentums?
ChristL Welt , 1893, and with RickerU Moderne Geschichtsphilosophie. TheoL
Rundschau 1901.
2o8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
period of equality, and then into that of increasing privilege by
the State, while they also increased extraordinarily in numbers,
the imperfections, laxities, and inconsistencies of the organization,
which until then had been functioning most admirably, became
apparent. They were unable to prevent the State, in its own
interest, from trying to unify the Church in matters of law and
doctrine, supported by the Church’s own legislation.
The support of the whole system, the episcopate, needed a
stronger unity which would make schism and division on questions
of doctrine and worship impossible. The episcopate needed a
strong organization of its own, over against the clergy who were
under the sway of the bishop. Above all, the need was felt for a
higher unity of administration, above the episcopate itself, an
administrative unity which all would recognize, and which
would be the source of the authority of the episcopate. It was felt
that the system of calling the bishops together in general synods
would not meet the case, since the right to call these synods lay
in the hands of the Emperor, and the competence of a synod,
whether it was universal or local, whether its resolutions were
carried out in practice or not, whether the bishops agreed among
themselves or not, was dependent upon its success, the interplay
of forces, upon caprice and accident. Friction began to arise
between the episcopal and aristocratic elements, and the congre-
gational and democratic elements, which had supplemented each
other so well during the period of the struggling Early Church
with its community life. This friction increased as the episcopal
dignity became a coveted office , 84 with official powers and a
force which counted in the State, and was subject to the influence
of the State. The uncertainties which surrounded the election of
bishops, combined with the conflicting influences which arose
from the general body of the faithful, from neighbouring bishops,
the State, and the great Princes of the Church, endangered the
stability of the institution, and opened the gates to the intervention
of alien powers and interests. Even the parochial clergy, who were
under the bishop, both in election and in the determination of the
sphere of their office, were divided among these different influ-
ences . 85 The religious communities, which had constituted a very
small group, with apparent suddenness became a very large one,
m See p. 383.
BG On this last point, Lotting: Gesch. des deutschen Kirchenrechtes, 1 , pp. iji and 158.
Other obscurities weie due to the lack of clarity in the relation between the
aristocratic and democratic elements in the problem of Church property. It de-
veloped out of the property belonging to a corporation into that which belonged
toaninstitution— adevelopment which the Imperial legislation tacitly sanctioned.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 209
and in the process they became strongly secularized. They then
ceased to exercise mutual control, and also slipped away from
the control of the bishops ; and the ecclesiastical discipline, which
only reached open sinners, was an entirely inadequate method of
spiritual control and authority . 86
Further, the fraternities and monasteries which were organized
during this period, with their strong tendencies towards separation
and independence, were a dangerous explosive, and a serious
rival of the priesthood. That is the real reason why the special
aim of the ecclesiastical institution, the maintenance of unity of
doctrine and the unity of the sacramental powers, was not
achieved by the Church, in spite of most vigorous support
from the State. The Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite Churches
broke away, and secured their independence by adhesion or
submission to foreign States. The Donatist peasant rising believed
only in the sacramental power of “pure 55 priests, and not in its
character indelebilis : this was the beginning of the great series of
sect-movements, with their hostility to the Church, which were to
cause extraordinary difficulties in later days.
The great princes of the Church quarrelled violently among
themselves, and their dogmatic controversies were the cause of
ecclesiastical and political conflicts.
Theological dilettantism and political statecraft often led the
Emperors to interfere in these conflicts. Thus, just as the Church
was becoming established and recognized, the sociological ten-
dency towards unity which was implicit in the episcopate was
split up and impeded, in spite of the powerful assistance of the
State. On the other hand, in the process of adjusting the Church
to the State, the political aim of making the Church one of the
powers which maintain and support the State, was only very
partially realized. Particularly in the West, ecclesiastical conflicts
and the ecclesiastical powers, incommensurable in contrast to the
State, had a directly disintegrating and disturbing effect. The
Church was a new sociological structure, whose own nature and
logical development were still incomplete, and whose relationship
to the rest of the sociological formations and groups, neither for
itself nor for these groups, had yet become clear.
Why, then, was this development arrested? And why was the
situation so confused and obscure? It was not due merely to the
natural immaturity of a new movement, nor to the weakening
of public spirit which takes place whenever a minority is changed
into a majority, and which — owing to the nominal and compul-
86 See p. 383.
o
VOL. I.
sio The social teaching of the Christian churches
sory Christianity of the masses— in actual fact had a particularly
paralysing effect. This arrested development was due to hin-
drances which were implicit in the thought and substance of
Christianity itself, in all its previous history. The new relation of
the Church to the State, that is to the Imperial power, in spite
of the extraordinary access of strength in which it resulted, had also
a bewildering and hampering effect. The Church received from
the hand of the State the unity of her doctrine and of her constitu-
tion; at the same time, however, this very authority continually
mingled foreign political opinions, interests, and powers with
the life of the Church. The Imperial absolutism, which at first the
Church accepted as a matter of course, and which effected the
consolidation of the Church and of its dogmas, acted at the same
time as a disturbing element, both in the unity and exclusiveness
of the Church and in her religious interests. The general theory
of the Doctors of the Church about the State did not help to clear
men’s minds ; in fact, it only increased the confusion. The institu-
tion of the State as an institution of relative Natural Law, and
the absolute Imperial power in the service of the theocratic
doctrine of salvation, supported by the bishops, which the
Emperors in the case of spiritual interests were to subordinate
to the structure of relative Natural Law : all that, indeed, gave a
positive value to the State, but the relation between Church and
State was still obscure. The relationship between them only
became clear when the Church was sufficiently able really to
dominate and guide the Empire, and when she had a concrete
idea of the way in which, with the aid of the Imperial authority,
the secular life could actually be woven in detail into the whole
scheme of eternal salvation.
At this period, however, something was lacking on all hands.
The episcopate did not present that united front to which the
Empire could have submitted; the Emperor did not dream of
giving up the old Roman idea of the State in favour of a spiritual
kingdom of priests. Further, in spite of the stability of the ancient
State and its remoteness from the ecclesiastical authorities, with
their ascetic and spiritual outlook, in all secular matters the
bishops were still prepared to submit unquestioningly to the
Emperor as to the authority appointed by God. Where, however,
they were to define the border-line between the spiritual and the
temporal was hard to say, and there was no court to which this
question could be referred.
Religious interests still seemed to flbe exhausted in fighting
against heretics, in the compulsory Christianizing of the heathen,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 211
and in gaining privileges for the Church. Ecclesiastical ethics were
not ready to claim a subordination of the life of Society as a whole,
and in detail, under the standard laid down by the Church ; the
social order was considered too stable and unalterable for that
to happen, the ascetic and religious spirit was still inwardly too
remote from the world, and the world, as it was, was in no way
prepared for such a change.
Along the following lines, however, it certainly seemed as
though the way were being prepared for such an incorporation of
social life into the Church : the bishops had begun to take a large
share in political and social activity, and in civic and penal
legislation; the bishops and the clergy possessed certain rights
in the administration of public affairs, and during political up-
heavals they developed social welfare work, in order to meet the
needs of their dioceses.
These developments, however, were the product of necessity,
and were contradictory in principle, dictated more by the interest
of the communes and of the provinces than by that of the Church.
They were hotly opposed by the ascetics, who regarded such
things as a secularization of the episcopal office ; indeed, very
often they were supported by the bishops more from secular than
from religious motives; on the other hand, the unique legal
position of the clergy, the continuation of their juridical activity,
the delegation of charitable activity to them, in the sense in which
the State regarded such matters, meant that the Church still
occupied her old unique position within the State — in which, to
some extent, the State allowed the Church to have an independent
existence, while it also used the Church for its own ends. This
meant, of course, that, instead of a union between the Church and
the world, both were openly and obviously separated. The
separation continued along the line which it had hitherto fol-
lowed, and was definitely limited in both directions, in order that
the Church should not be too closely involved in conformity with
the world.
When Church and State became allies there were surprises on
both sides. The State hoped to include the Church among its
supporters, and it found itself confronted with the sovereign
authority of a purely spiritual power. With the help of the State
the Church hoped to come to a satisfactory conclusion on the
question of unity, and in admitting the influence of the State she
admitted a disturbing element, a foreign body, which, under
certain circumstances, useful, and in others disintegrating,
but which in any case was always an alien influence.
si 2 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
In this situation Chrysostom, Leo I, Gelasius, and Augustine
might well demand the theocratic subordination of the Emperor
to the priesthood, according to the pattern of the Old Testament,
and in so doing foreshadow the “Programme of the Middle
Ages 55 ; but in the East this programme was never realized, and
in the West it was only realized after the lapse of five hundred
years. Between the time of Augustine and of Gregory the Seventh
there must lie something more than the mere dissolution of the
Empire and the paralysis caused by the influx of barbarism.
Otherwise its realization would not have been so long delayed,
and the new character of the Church, particularly in relation to
social matters, would not have arisen out of the mere disintegration
of ecclesiastical unity. The element which arose between these
two periods must contain within itself the reasons which caused
the nebulous programme of Augustine to develop into a vital
reality. In the Early Church this programme was, indeed, not
merely still unrealized, but at that time there were also no means
at all by which it could have been realized, nor was there any
tangible hope for the future; the aloofness of the Church from
the world, and the independence of the State, firmly based on a
primitive legal and administrative technique, made the very idea
of such a fusion impossible.
The theory of the Lex naturae made it possible to accept the
State in a general way ; this meant, however, the State as distinct
from the Church, and alongside of all its asserted identity with the
Lex Mosis , or with the Decalogue, it still contained no concrete
suggestion of the way in which the Church, on her side, should
order in a practical way the secular situation in property, trade,
law, social and political organization, and intellectual life. At the
most everything is adapted to fit a parallelism, with incidental
exceptions, and as soon as the parallels part asunder wisdom and
theory fail . 87
The sociological consolidation of the unified sacerdotal Church
was connected with the formation of a new relationship with the
State, in which the State appropriated spiritual aims and stan-
dards and inwardly united its own organization with that of the
Church ; the outcome of this was that either directly or indirectly
the general social life was placed under the control of the stan-
dards of the Church. This is what took place, after severe conflicts,
both in the East and in the West; each time, however, the course
of events differed greatly. In the actual course of these concrete
struggles and developments a consicferable part of the new
87 See p. 383.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 213
element which ushered in the so-called mediaeval period must
have been established* It would, of course, also be quite possible
to imagine that the diametrically opposite course was pursued,
and that the Church took up her theocratic position, forcing the
State to submit to her without further argument. The State,
however, was still decidedly the stronger partner, and, on the
other hand, the Church was still much too reserved, too restricted
to her merely spiritual office, for such a thing even to be imag-
ined ; all that happened was that now and again the hierarchy
indulged in visionary hopes, which swiftly faded away when the
submission of the priesthood in all secular matters to the authority
of the State was secured. Thus the quickest way out of all this
tension and difficulty was the development of a Christian State
Church, In the East this arose directly out of an inner process of
development; the peculiar reasons which helped to bring this
about in the West, and which gave it its special character, will be
dealt with in their own place.
Arrested Development in the East
In the East, after much strife and conflict, a position of stable
unity was attained, in which the Empire itself was transformed
into a spiritual dignity, gathering up into itself the religious
purpose of the Church ; in return, however, it made the Church
a department of the State.
The old orientalized and feudalized Roman State, with its
Hellenistic culture and literature, remained, but it absorbed into
itself the spiritual system, and forced both to agree with each
other by the authority of the State. If by the Middle Ages we mean
that unity of civilization which combined the sacred and the
secular, the natural and the supernatural, the State and the
Church (characteristics which also belonged to the culture of the
Islamic States, and for similar reasons), then the Eastern Roman
Empire is genuinely mediaeval, and those who say that the East
had no mediaeval period have very peculiar opinions . 8 7a In the
East this mediaeval period has lasted down to the present day, and
we see before our very eyes the strangest combinations, in which
this mediaevalism is mingled with the most modern political and
economic plans and aspirations. This Eastern Mediaeval period
was, however, very different from its counterpart in the West.
The point of divergence lies in the fact that the theocratically
and spiritually moulded Roman-Hellenistic State still remained
the old State, with its ancient laws and its ancient culture; it only
87a See p. 384.
214 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
compromised with Christian thought, but never inwardly became
united with it. The old alienation of ancient enemies still remained
in spite of all apparent softening, and the whole system remained
a parallelism whose component parts could only be kept in right
relation with each other by the Empire, which was spiritually
interested and qualified for the task. The process of uniformity con-
fined itself to the common regulation of both by the spiritual and
temporal Imperial power; and inner mutual interpenetration
did not take place. The political authority of the State had to be
satisfied with an undisturbed parallelism ; it did not need to effect
an inward intellectual penetration; the necessity for this would
only have been felt by the Church if she had been supreme. This
is why the Byzantine East lacks the deep inner conflicts of the
Middle Ages in the West, and the development of phenomena
like the Renaissance and the Reformation. To a great extent
these movements arose out of the efforts to achieve an inward
fusion which were constantly being attempted by the Middle
Ages in the West; the Ancient World, which always remained a
vital force, never effected any Renaissance in the East, and in
the East the attempt to deepen and renew the religious life always
led simply to a revival of asceticism, even in so modern a form as
the asceticism of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy . 88 The East never pro-
vided a fruitful soil for movements like the Reformation.
Development in the West
Why, then, was the course of development so different in the
West? In the West the final result of this development was an
entirely different relationship to the State, and thus to social life
in general ; that is, the hierarchical theocratic unity of civilization.
As has already been pointed out, this conception could not have
been directly deduced from the religious thought of the Church
as such. What, then, were the events, which, in spite of this fact,
contributed to this development?
These events were the great fundamental events of the
Church History of the West: (i) The division of the Church
of the Imperial period into Germanic-Roman Territorial
Churches,* in which, for five hundred years, the continuity of
88 On this point cf. Karl Neumann: Die Weltstellung des byzantiniscken Reiches , 1895,
and especially Byzantinische Kultur und Renaissancekultur, 1503. Unfortunately
the history of the Russian Church is too little known to make it possible to
follow up the interesting parallels and differences which certainly must exist
in connection with the development in the 'Wpt.
* The term Landeskirche will be thus rendered throughout this book. —
Translator.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 215
the previous development seemed to have almost entirely dis-
appeared. The Frankish Territorial Church became the channel
of the main line of development, reaching its highest point in the
Carolingian Empire, continued by Otto and his successors, and
developing^ under the Salian emperors, into the Universal Catholic
Church. That, too, was a State Church system, but it was quite
different from that of the East, since it was based, not upon the
strength of the State, but upon the inward permeation of the
sacred and the secular, which first gave to the State its power and
its civilizing mission; therefore also the result for the Church
differed greatly from Byzantinism. (2) The formulation of the
idea of the Papacy, and of the ecclesiastical universalism sup-
ported by it, in close connection with a new wave of international
asceticism, animated by the spirit of detachment from the world,
and by an ecclesiastical science supported by the Religious Orders.
Since the German Monarchy was forced to give up its Territorial
Church religious ideas by the universal Empire, and was led to
care for the whole of Christendom, it again enthroned the Papal
idea, and the Papacy now had within her grasp the inheritance
which five hundred years of the influence of the Territorial
Church in Church and State, both in the spiritual and the tem-
poral realm, had laid at her feet.
The Germanic-Roman Territorial Church was something
quite different from the Byzantine State Church, and the first
reason for the difference between them must lie here. The signifi-
cance of these events must now be made clear in detail.
3. THE TERRITORIAL CHURCH PERIOD OF THE EARLY
MIDDLE AGES
The rise of the Germanic-Roman States, alongside of which
stand the Celtic, and, later, the Slavonic and the Hungarian States,
meant first of all that the Imperial Church completely dis-
appeared, and that the Canon Law of the ancient united Church
was discarded, apparently for ever. It was only in the Anglo-
Saxon Church that the Canon Law was retained in its integrity,
together with the Roman order of worship, and the connection
with the centre through the Roman Bishop. All the other States —
above all, the Kingdom of the Franks, which united Central
Europe and gave to it a common basis of civilization — adminis-
tered the Church purely as a Territorial Church, and incorpor-
ated its organism into the body of the new State ; the idea of the
216 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
United Church was only retained in a conventional respect for
the Pope, and in the sense of the collective consciousness of
Christendom. In these lands there arose a Church order which
differed completely from that of the Early Church; its funda-
mental idea was that of the rights of property and of possession
enjoyed by the sovereign Princes over whatever Church might
happen to be under their jurisdiction. It was only thus that the
development of ecclesiastical vassalage and of ecclesiastical land-
tenure became possible, which gave the Church completely into
the hands of the lords of the manor and of the feudal lords, at
whose head was the King.
The reasons for the emergence of this theory of the Territorial
Church, which was something quite new, are still obscure.
The system of the independent Church ( Eigenkirche ) was un-
doubtedly connected with the old pre-Christian form of worship.
The Territorial Church principle was enormously strengthened
in the course of time by the independent Church. It seems possible
that this principle may have arisen in the Arian churches, which
were excluded from the Orthodox Church; thus when national
conflict arose they were forced to adopt a “territorial” or
“national” Church organization; in so doing they were perhaps
related to the traditions of the ancient pre-Christian popular cults.
If these suppositions were justified they would illuminate the
situation in a very characteristic way. The purely universal
religious ethic which arose within the heathen State was unable to
find any inward relationship with the life of the world, but the
after-effects of the Germanic popular worship, in which, as in all
paganism, religious and natural social elements are generally
related, involved a natural connection with both these aspects . 883
In the same way that Byzantine State Christianity was connected
with the traditional religion of the Roman State, so also the
Western Territorial Church system would then be connected with
the previous paganism. That, however, would also explain the
difference between the State Church system in the East and the
Territorial Church system of the West. In the East a strong State,
with an ancient tradition of civilization, incorporated the Church
into itself; in the West, on the other hand, the life of a new State
was built up with the help of the Church. In an entirely naive
and orthodox way the Church regarded the claims of Church and
8Sa Cf. the important work by U. Stutz: Die Eigenkirche. My colleague, Herr von
Schubert, drew my attention to the Arian churche|f; he is about to publish a very
illuminating essay on this subject. He believes that he can prove the depen-
dence of the Frankish Church upon Arian example.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 217
State as identical; the ecclesiastical organization was also in
accord with the general legal and economic conditions of the
State. Sufficiently civilized to give to the young State its intellec-
tual basis, its forms of organization and its moral foundations, the
Gallic-Germanic clergy, who were solely occupied with questions
of adaptation and who were subject to the new law and property
conditions, were still too much bound, both intellectually and
materially, even to dream of an independent ecclesiastical
civilization.
Thus there arose the Territorial Church or the Landeskirche.
In any case, there can be no doubt about the novelty of the
principle. The remains of the old Church of the Empire ( Reichs -
kirche) could not resist this development, as they were being
pushed back into an ever-diminishing territory ; the greater part
of her domains fell into the hands of the Eastern Empire and of
the Islamic States, while in her centre, the Papacy, she was over-
whelmed with her own territorial anxieties.
It is true that from the side of the Anglo-Saxon Church the
reform and the ecclesiastical organizations of Boniface, which
the Frankish sovereigns used for their own purposes, had restored
the connection with Rome, effected the victory of the Italian Bene-
dictine monastic rule over that of the Scottish and Columban
rule, and endeavoured to obtain the closest possible approxima-
tion to the Canon Law ; but while the Frankish rulers utilized this
reform in their Church, which was actually most demoralized,
they put a stop to the “universal Church” tendencies, and only
made use of them for the intellectual quickening and the stabiliza-
tion of the organization of their own Territorial Church.
When, however, in the time of Charlemagne, all the northern
parts of the previous Roman Empire and the new mission terri-
tories were united on the one hand, then the Territorial Church
(. Landeskirche ) became the Church of the Empire (Reichskirche ) , but
it was an Imperial Church in the sense of the Frankish Terri-
torial Church. It was a Territorial Church which now in-
cluded the Pope. The Emperor governed the Church, and used
it as the essential support of the organization and education of
his peoples, while he directed in this sense the interior, legal, and
land-owning development of the Church and also used them for
public ends.
It is to this policy of Charlemagne that we can trace, even after
the division of the Cargjlingian Empire, throughout Central
Europe, this fundamental tendency of ecclesiasticism. The re-
sumption of the Carolingian idea of the State by the Saxon
218 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Imperial House meant, indeed, that those who bore spiritual and
secular dignities could no longer remain in the position of mere
officials ; dignitaries of both lands had to be allowed to become
princes. Now, however, it was supported firmly by the spiritual
aristocracy, which, owing to the fact that it was not hereditary,
was dependent upon the influence of the Crown, and was also
responsible for the civilization and political unity of the Empire.
In England, Alfred the Great worked on similar lines to those
laid down by Charlemagne. This was the state of affairs until
the great Gregorian conflict broke out over the question of the
severance of the Church from the State, and the renewal of the
Universal Church and the Canon Law. Where the effects of
the struggle did not extend, as in the remote Scandinavian lands,
everything remained as it was before.
The Church and Civilization
This is as far as we can go with the great story ; its details belong
to the history of the Church, of law and of economics . 89 For our
present inquiry the vital point is this: That these five hundred
years of the development of the idea of the Territorial Church
placed the religious forces of organization and thought at the
service of the State and its tasks of civilization.
The fact that Christianity was forced to develop this kind of
civilizing activity was neither the result of inner compulsion nor
the outcome of religious thought. Rather it was due to the force
of circumstances and to the compulsion of an uncivilized State,
which had to utilize for its own ends the ecclesiastical organization,
and the vital tradition of ancient civilization which it contained ;
only thus was the State able to build up a civilization of its own.
Thus Christianity drew into the realm of ideas governed by the
Church and religion those tracts of life which were not directly
connected with the Church. In particular, it was the genius of
Charlemagne which opened up this path for Christianity, and, in
so doing, essentially and permanently determined the peculiar
basis of mediaeval Christendom.
It is, however, scarcely possible to ascribe the whole of this
result solely to the mere personal genius of Charlemagne. The
underlying basis of the work of Charlemagne contained an alto-
gether different idea of the State from the idea of the State which
the Church Fathers had taken over from late antiquity. While
the Fathers held that the State was both the result of and the
discipline for sin, but was otherwise absolutist in character, they
89 See p 8 384.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 219
were only occasionally inclined to use this absolutism in order to
gain ecclesiastical privilege; in the Carolingian State, however,
in spite of all its outward literary continuance of the patriotic
doctrine of the State, there were also present traces of the influ-
ence of the Germanic idea of the monarchy.
The Divine Right of Kings appears in a much greater degree in
all their proclamations and theories ; further, the monarchy, both
in the struggle to realize its own existence and in the exercise
of its authority, was dependent on the co-operation of the people
and of the nobles, and was therefore bound to observe the law,
that is, to preserve the welfare and the security of the masses, and
to serve them in a loyal paternal spirit. The basic idea is the King’s
obligation to care for the good of the whole, from which also is
deduced the right to depose a monarch when he acts unworthily
and disloyally, as well as the duty of caring for the common weal
and of common activity for common ends. This leads to the
introduction of a new element into the idea of the State, whose
effect is seen first of all in the Carolingian type, in an extension of
the royal power over all his subjects, which also makes it possible
for the Church to extend its works of charity. Later this same
conception has the opposite effect, making it possible for us to
understand why kings had to submit to a purely ecclesiastical law.
The Christianizing of the Germanic monarchy makes the King,
where he conceives his tasks ideally, the representative of righteous-
ness and of care for all his compatriots, to whom he renders
loyalty for loyalty. Upon this new foundation also is based the
doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, which had been taken over
from the ancient doctrine of the State, and which now received
a new meaning. Not merely the passive reception of the Divine
appointment to power, but the purpose of this authority, is the
basis of the Divine Right of Kings. The sovereign is the representa-
tive of God in his endeavour to realize a Christian order of life . 90
Such a Christianizing of the Germanic monarchy would indeed
have been impossible if Christianity had really been essentially
ascetic from the beginning, if the Gospel writings, as well as the
early Christian and the Early Church literature, had actually only
perpetuated and manifested an ascetic tradition, if the incompati-
bility between Christianity and royalty in the Early Church had
merely consisted in the hostility of Christianity to the world. In
reality, however, the Qhristian ethic had been formed on two
planes, and the ecclesiaitical tradition contained within itself a
large section of the inheritance from the civilization of the ancient
90 See p. 386.
220 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
world, so that the so-called “Renaissances 55 in the times of the
Emperors Charlemagne and Otto I and II, and the later strong
development of elements of ancient civilization, formed a natural
element in every renewal of ecclesiastical literature and art. We
shall return to this subject later.
In the first instance, it is characteristic of the situation that
before the acceptance of the Burgundian and Cluniac reform
movement, the monastic system was definitely placed at the
service of civilization — that is, it served the interests of education
and of science. This is particularly true of Charlemagne. The
Benedictine Rule, in the interest of the monks, laid great stress
upon the importance of scientific and agricultural work, and
Charlemagne placed these forces at the service of the State and
of Society. Further, the new tendency was made easier by the fact
that in the Roman Imperial Church the episcopate had already
taken on a series of public duties, and that in the time of disruption
the preservation of civic order and of civilizing activities fell
chiefly into its hands.
Thus there lay in the Church the possibility of being used for
the civilizing aims of the State and of Society, even when it had
no inner spontaneous impulse in this direction. The Church was
drawn into this kind of activity by the need of the semi-civilized
State, and she continued to exercise it because it increased her own
position of power and influence, because her own position as a
landowner made it essential, and because the Germanic Christians
had no sense of any inward inconsistency between the ancient
civilization of the State and the ideal of Society within the Church.
So far as my knowledge extends, no one ever doubted the possi-
bility of an inner reconciliation between secular and spiritual tasks.
If scruples arose, monasticism was there to act as a channel for
the sense of the need of asceticism, alongside of the activity of the
Church both as a landowner and in the domain of science. The
Christian State and the Christian Society, without any theory,
seemed to have reached a mutual understanding quite naturally,
just as previously their separation had also seemed natural.
In this connection there was a special importance, as we have
already seen, in the territorial development of the bishoprics and
monasteries themselves. In part this was due to asceticism itself,
which ordained that in order to win a heavenly reward, and to
expiate earthly sins and deeds of violence, extraordinarily large
gifts should be given to the Church, an# most of these gifts hap-
pened to be gifts of land . 91 Further, the general economic and
91 Gf. Uhlhom , II 3 43-54*
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 221
social situation, which, after the land had gradually been absorbed
by free occupation and by clearing, caused the rise of the system
of large estates, in which small landowners placed themselves
under the protection of the large landowners, owing to the loss
of freedom caused by feudal tenure, and the system of land-
tenure known as precarium.
Now, however, the Church took a large share in this growth of
large estates, since, owing to her more merciful treatment, and
also to the fact that she possessed numerous “immunities’’ or
charters of privilege, she was preferred by the small landowners
who gave her themselves and their land. The position of rural
economics which had no large business system, made it necessary
for large landowners to have their property administered by
tenant-farmers, villeins, and serfs, in small individual holdings ;
this created a complicated social and legal system which forced
the landowner to make legal and social provision for all these
varied grades and conditions . 92 As a matter of course, therefore,
the charitable activity of the Church was forced to undertake the
care of tenant-farmers and vassals, whereas the specially organized
charity of the Early Church was the work of the congregation,
while other charitable needs which were not met by general
welfare work were met by the hospital, and later on by the work
of the religious communities.
Both for the property of the Crown, and, above all, for the estates
of the Church, Charlemagne explicitly decreed this social policy
and welfare work, which was certainly still in a very elementary
state, and this became the usual practice among all bishops and
abbots of goodwill. Once again, however, this whole social
transformation itself was based upon the practice of a purely
agricultural economic system . 93
Under the Merovingians the economic system based on money
ends, and with the extension of the Empire from the old civic
culture of Gaul into the German agricultural territories the
urban character of the Early Church, which up till that time had
stamped its essential character upon her, disappears. The bishops
now own large estates, and the rural parish has come into exist-
ence, in which the priest is endowed with full sacerdotal rights,
and possesses a certain amount of landed property. The country
parish, in addition to its special vocation to educate the people,
in the sphere of morals is* gradually drawn very deeply into the
interests of the general around it, by its economic relation-
ships. In this way the development of Church property made the
92 Cf. Uhlhorn , II, 57-60. 93 Cf. Lamprecht , II, go ff.
222 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Church a social force, and through her dependence upon others
she became interested in the situation as a whole.
While the economic system based upon agriculture, with the
increasing lack of free land, produced the socage farm with its
technique of management, its compulsory service, and payment
of taxes, ecclesiastical property also was forced into this system,
and owing to its considerable size it immediately took a leading
position. This had a still more important result. On account of
the lack of actual cash the salaries of the officials had to be paid
in grants of land, and out of this fact there arose the hereditary
character of the office, the whole system of feudal tenure. Since
ecclesiastical property, however, was naturally not hereditary,
the Kings saw in this fact the one and only method by which —
through constant grants of land to the Church — a race of non-
hereditary officials could be created, which would thus prevent the
division of the Empire into hereditary territorial dominions. So it
came about quite naturally that the clergy became the real
officials of the Empire and the main support of the royal power.
Thus from this side also the clergy were drawn into the general
political and social welfare interests; they were invested with
public authority, and at the same time their own desires in the
direction of the acquisition of land were furthered. Bound up
with that development, however, was the complete disappearance
of the canonical idea from Church property, in accordance with
which Church lands were regarded as the institutional property
of the Church ; such lands now became the property of the ruler
upon whose land the Church stood, and they were only granted
in the form of a fief. Thus kings and dukes became the supreme
owners of Church property, and those who held the land became
territorial lords (great landowners) like other feudal lords; this
whole situation drew the Church herself into all the interests of
the Empire and of Society.
Finally, we must not forget the missionary activity which
characterized the whole of this period, and which only reached
its height in the Crusades. The mission of the Early Church was
free preaching within a homogeneous social system supported by
the Roman Empire, and it gathered the fruits of the interior
religious development of antiquity. The mission of the Middle
Ages, like that of modern times, was everywhere a political and a
civilizing agency. The foundation of new bishoprics was always
an act of the State, and at the same time a Germanization, which
the ecclesiastical organization utilized for the purposes of political
administration and of culture and education. The Crusades pro-
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 223
duced spiritual and semi-spiritual dominions, which, at least in
theory, were supposed to be Christian States, and orders of
Chivalry placed at the disposal of Christendom special organs for
social purposes of all kinds . 94
The total effect of these events was an interpenetration of
Church and State, of the spiritual and the temporal, of the
ascetic and the socio-political aspects of life, which gave the
Church of the Middle Ages a quite different character from that
of the Early Church. All that differentiates this social policy of
the mediaeval Church from a modern social policy based on ethics
is the fact that it lacks entirely that deeper and more compre-
hensive reflection upon the nature of political, economic, and
social processes ; and also the whole idea of the dependence of
spiritual and ethical values upon the soundness of their economic
and social substructure, and therefore of prophylactic politics,
is entirely undeveloped. Christian idealism has only that in
common with the Stoic and Platonic elements which have been
fused with it. There could not yet exist a deeper understanding
of this kind in a world ruled by mediaeval ideas. Even the empiri-
cism and realism of the Aristotelian doctrine of the State and of
ethics, which in spite of its ideological and moral character, as we
shall see presently, invests the Thomist doctrine of the State and
of Society with at least a certain regard for a rational policy of
welfare, has not yet begun to exercise its influence.
4. THE REACTION IN FAVOUR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
AND THE CATHOLIC UNITY OF CIVILIZATION
Reaction in Favour of Papal Supremacy
From the tenth century onwards, however, the conception
of the Universal Church arose once more in opposition to
this Territorial Church system, which was centralized in the
German Church — the Church which was the strongest, the most
well organized, and the most fully endowed of this kind. This
idea of a Universal Church was closely related to a revival of
ascetic Idealism, coupled with a renewed assertion of the Latin
world against the predominance of the German Church. Another
aspect of this movement was the revival of the Canon Law over
against that of the Territorial Church, and of the canonical
94 For the new methods now adopted by the missionary leaders, see the whole
work of Hauck; for the Crusades regarded as a mission, see Uhlhorn , //, ggff.
224 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
conception of Church property, in opposition to that of the
independent Church (Eigenkirche ) .
A detailed description of the process by which these elements
came together and finally formed a unity, belongs to the sphere of
Church History. At this point our one aim is to lay emphasis upon
those aspects of the situation which are particularly relevant to
the subject of this book. The movement in favour of a Universal
Church began with Latin asceticism. When the Carolingian
dominions were broken up into large estates the Church was to
a great extent disorganized and despoiled ; this prepared the way
for an ecclesiastical revolt against the civil authority ; in this the
tradition of the Primitive Church was more living, and the
unifying and organizing impulse stronger than in the German
Church. In the nature of things the revival was ascetic in char-
acter ; this aspect was doubtless intensified by the current expecta-
tion of the expiration of the Thousand Years 5 Reign in the year
iooo. The ecclesiastical demands themselves, however, were not
on that account directed towards the de-secularization of the
Church ; on the contrary, they were concerned with such questions
as the full restitution of ecclesiastical property to churches and
monasteries, the right of the Church to an unhindered administra-
tion of Church property, the strict carrying out of the Canon Law
in the election of bishops and abbots, as well as in the handling
of Church property. All this pointed towards the independence
of the Church of the civil authorities, and at the same time to
the continuation of her territorial and princely rights ; towards a
stricter, at first more personal, and then more organized, holding
together of the reformed monasteries among themselves ; towards
uniformity in the Church and opposition to the exploitation of
the episcopate for the purposes of Imperial politics.
The urge towards unity in the Canon Law, which was the first
element in the whole movement, then led gradually to union
with the Papacy, which alone could provide a basis of unity and
support against the political bishops; that had become all the
more necessary since by this time the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals
formed part of the Canon Law. During the confusion of the post-
Carolingian period the clergy had already sought to secure their
position against the Metropolitans of the Territorial Church, and
against the ruling princes, by proclaiming the universal episcopate
of the Pope, based upon the False Decretals. It is only now that
this idea reappears which was to form the coping-stone of the
sociological structure of the Church ; it arose at first for the same
reasons as had produced it in the ninth century, and the Cluniac
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 225
party sought to introduce its own members into the Pontificate.
Finally the German Emperors themselves helped to precipitate
events ; they thought that they were only in full control of their
Church if they had the Pope under their thumb ; and, in addition,
by their politics in Upper Italy they were always forced into
contact with the Pope . 95
Further, since they themselves shared in the ascetic tendencies
towards reform, and expected support from a strongly spiritually-
minded Pope for their own ethico-reforming Church policy, they
helped to enthrone the new movement for a Universal Church,
without expecting the ecclesiastical system of feoffment, upon
which the German Empire was based, to be shattered.
Results of this Reaction
With Gregory the Seventh, however, the radical consequences
of the new system came to light : namely, the centralization of the
Church in the Papacy, the strict enactment of the provisions of
the Canon Law with regard to celibacy , 96 and the election and
administration of the episcopal office, and the theoretical sub-
ordination of the Royal and Imperial authority to the Church in
all religious questions, with the further proviso, that it is for the
Church to decide what are the problems which concern salvation.
We cannot pursue this subject any further; it was a vast struggle,
full of warring elements and affected by a number of casual
events . 97 In the main it was a purely ideological reaction, vitally
connected both with international asceticism and with specifi-
cally Christian universal ideas, which, however, were certainly
not national.
The essential outcome of the whole movement, therefore, wasjts
doctrinal result. It is in this, the conclusion of the whole matter,
that the theory of the sociological consolidation of the Church is
finally completed and established. It is upon this consolidated
theory that the ultimate Catholic position towards all social
problems is based.
The fact that the ecclesiastical claims were only realized in a
very limited way, that alongside of the crude hierarchical ten-
dency there appeared in the Italian communes successful demo-
96 See p. 387.
96 The celibacy of the clergy \^as required not only for ascetic reasons but for
economic ones as well ; it sa^ed Church funds from bearing the financial
burden of the support of priests' wives and children. Hauck, III , 328*
87 On the subject of the Gregorian Reform, see the detailed presentation of
the subject by Mirbt: Die Publizistik im Zeitalters Gregor VII, 1894.
VOL. I. P
226 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
cratic and heretical movements, that the ascetic current in the
development of the feudal system flowed back strongly towards
the civilization of chivalry, that after the high-water mark of the
hierarchical world of thought had been reached (that is, after the
period of Innocent) very soon the old hostility between the terri-
torial churches and the universal Church broke out once more
between papal and episcopal ideas — all this does not in any way
alter the fact that the result of the Gregorian struggle is, and
remains for all future time, the logical result of the sociological
conception of the sacramental sacerdotal Church and of the
redemptive institution.
This becomes evident in the doctrinal developments of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Until this period the two
fundamental dogmas in which all the dogmatic theology of that
day consisted were the dogma of Church, Canon and tradition,
and the Christological-Trinitarian dogma. To these were now
added three new dogmas, which were specifically mediaeval:
(i) the dogma of the universal episcopate of the Pope, (2) the
dogma of the supremacy of the spiritual power over the temporal,
and (3) the dogma of the impartation of grace through the Seven
Sacraments. It is of course true that, actually, in the Middle Ages
the third dogma alone was officially formulated; but the two
former dogmas, which were only finally settled by the Vatican,
may still be described as implicit dogmas ; in practice they were
as effective as though they had been already formulated. The
detailed history of their development belongs to the history
of dogma, which also in this respect must lay special stress,
above all, upon the conclusions and commentaries of St. Thomas 98 ;
here, however, it is only their sociological significance which
interests us.
Papal Supremacy
The first demand of the Reform, coupled with internationalism
and the spiritual rigorism of asceticism, was directed towards
the systematic practice of the Canon Law, towards a strict and
absolute independence of the spiritual functions. This could only
be attained by emphasis upon the centre of the Church, by the
exaltation of the Papacy, which alone could guarantee and carry
out a system of equal and balanced rights. Further, this central-
ization could only find a satisfactory logical basis if the authority
of the Pope over the whole Church*, and especially over the
bishops, were dogmatically established and recognized as an
98 See p. 387.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 2127
article of faith and of Jus divinum . That, again, was only possible
through the theory of the “Primacy of the Pope 95 , or of the
supreme “priestly, teaching, and pastoral office of the Pope 95 ,
according to which he alone is the direct ruler of the Church;
and the bishops may only exercise their office as derived from the
papal office, and upon the foundation of the juridical supervision
and appointment of the Pope. In its final logical form this argu-
ment develops into the doctrine of the universal episcopate of the
Pope, in which the bishops rank merely as his representatives, and
by which the Pope alone hands over all these powers to the
bishops and their clergy in the rite of consecration.
This is the dogma of Gregory VII. It is at the same time the
actual logical completion of the theory, which, however, was
limited in various ways. It alone also produced, logically, the
dogma of the infallibility of the decisions ex cathedra in questions of
faith and morals, in which the unity of the organism of the
Church was finally summarized. Closely connected with this
dogmatic development was the movement to secure the Papacy,
both politically and juridically, by the new form of Papal election.
The power of electing a Pope was placed in the hands of the
cardinals, and the election was thus freed from Imperial and local
influences, while the elective body of cardinals then developed into
the organ of government for the whole Church. Another element
in this development was the fact that the Pope was granted the
right to summon General Councils, whose decisions could not
be made effective until he had confirmed them by his own
authority. Above all, however, one of the most important as-
pects of this movement was the development of the Canon Law
into the universal law of Christendom, laid down and adminis-
tered by the Pope; its influence was felt wherever direct or in-
direct religious interests were concerned. In this we see absolutely
clearly the completion of the sociological idea of the Church.
At first the unity and basis of the religious social structure was
founded upon the mystical Christ ; then, properly speaking, the
mystical Christ was localized in the Christian sacerdotalism of
the bishops ; then under the bishops unity had to be restored by
arranging that their spiritual powers should emanate from and be
permanently controlled by a common source. The religious source
of truth and life, from which the sociological principle of cohesion
proceeds, is narrowed do Vn more and more, until, in the end* the
Pope, as the Vicar of Christ and the successor of the Prince of the
Apostles, St. Peter, constitutes the real conservation of the source
of truth and life. An organism which is founded upon the miracle
aa8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of absolute Truth and of sacramental redemptive powers stands
in need of the clear, permanent, and sure concentration and
definition of the miracle which it pro duces, over against all that
is changeable, uncertain, and merely human. Thus the Pope
sums up in himself the whole conception of miracle and becomes
the central miracle of Christendom; his miraculous power then
radiates forth from him again in a precise and regular way
through the different degrees of the hierarchy down to the most
obscure village cun. The concentration of the hierarchy in the
Papacy is the dogma which completes the sociological tendency
towards unity, as it was bound to develop and become complete
once the process had begun by which the Church and the
Christian priesthood were conceived as the Body of Christ.
This full logical conclusion, however, was only drawn by
considerable sections of the literature dealing with dogma and
with Church order, and it was only the distinctive doctrine of the
Curia ; it arose, however, at the same time as the Pseudo-Isidorian
Decretals (which, indeed, belonged to the Canon Law emphasized
by the Reform) and the Gregorian conception of the Church, and
policy ; since that time it has always possessed the right and the
authority of a logical argument. Traces still remained, however,
of earlier and different stages in the development of the dogma,
and frequently a vacillating theory hindered the acceptation of
the final conclusions. The starting-point of the whole, priestly
ordination by the ancient local bishop based upon Apostolic
Succession, is still connected merely with the simple priest; the
bishop himself has been promoted, over the heads of his diocesan
clergy, to the court from which the spiritual power emanates to
the priest. The bishop, however, has no real power to impart
sacramental grace; his authority is based upon the sacerdotal
consecration which he received simply as a priest, and on the
authority for teaching and jurisdiction imparted to him by his
consecration. He exercises this power by permission of, and under
the control and dominion of, the Pope. It is only the extreme
doctrine of the Curia which teaches that the episcopal office really
emanates from the authority of the Pope, whereas the modified
theory tries to balance the independence of the episcopal office
by emphasizing its dependence upon the absolute monarch. The
Pope, on the other hand, receives his miraculous power, which
involves everything else, neither through sacramental ordination
like the priests, nor through consecration like the bishops, but
solely through constitutional election. This fact accounts for the
retention of certain inequalities and possibilities of important
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 229
differences in practice, but the general custom was moving more
and more in the direction of the absolute universal episcopate of
the Pope, and the ideal had been clearly formulated already in the
Gregorian struggles. From the standpoint of the whole it is the
true ideal, for it was the logical consequence of the sociological
consolidation of the Christian organism."
The Church independent of the State
But the result of this ideal and practice soon went far beyond
this first and real claim of the Reform into a wider sphere, into
the secular realm, into the temporal sphere. The claim for Papal
supremacy in the Church developed into the claim for the free-
dom of the Church from the State, and for its supremacy over the
State, a claim which Gregory VII summed up as “righteousness 55 .
The more the uniform supremacy of the Pope and of the Canon
Law was checked by the admixture of secular power in the
nomination of bishops and abbots, and by the whole politico-
social role of the episcopate as an organic integral part of the
order of the State, all the more the closely knit unity of the
Church demanded the elimination of every alien element; ob-
viously this could only be secured by authority over the State.
“Righteousness 55 requires the supremacy of the true ruler, of the
spiritual authority, in order that in principle all interference with
the true ruler may be excluded. In principle, however, such a
possibility is only excluded if the State is theoretically subordinate
to the Church, as an organ to be appointed by her for the control
of secular affairs, for the organization of secular conditions and
values, in relation to the absolute spiritual purpose of life, which
is supported by the hierarchy.
The dogma of the universal episcopate required as its comple-
ment the dogma of theocracy. The interference of foreign powers
could not be excluded with any certainty by returning to a mere
parallelism, as many religious souls in the reform movement —
especially Peter Damiani — expected, and as again, later on, was
demanded by the Franciscans and by Dante. The conception of
a merely independent spiritual Church devoted to poverty,
whose one aim is to fulfil her spiritual function alongside of the
State, which serves her voluntarily and out of Christian love, was
neither practical nor possible. A thousand times over experience
had proved that in such fi a situation friction was bound to occur.
The full freedom and independence of the Church was only
reached when the temporal powers were subordinate to the
99 See p. 388.
2 3 0 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Church, conditioned by her in their very nature, and directed by
her in all matters pertaining to salvation. Since, however, ulti-
mately, in some way or another, everything can be brought into
contact with salvation, and since it is the Church which deter-
mines in what such a relation with “salvation” consists, the whole
idea of the freedom of the Church means her authority over the
State and over temporal matters. Thus, in the great struggle the
harsh Augustinian views of the State were re-emphasized, as well
as Augustine’s doctrine (developed in his writings against the
Donatists), that the State ought to place its services at the disposal
of the Church, and that the sin-tainted State is hallowed by this
service. In the heat of conflict, however, these opinions were
radically intensified. The sinfulness of the State, which was
emphasized by Augustine, who also always admitted the presence
of a germ of the Law of Nature in this institution, was far more
strongly emphasized, and his theocratic programme, which was
only used to help to get rid of heretics, was immensely broadened ;
it was claimed that the authority of the Church ought to control
the whole temporal realm, that princes should be held in fief by
the authority of the Church, and that the Church ought to direct
and control the whole life of the State and of Society. Even when
men did not go so far as this, when the idea was maintained that
the State had an independent basis in God and in the Law of
Nature, even then it was claimed that the State ought to be sub-
ordinate to the Church at least in all matters pertaining to salva-
tion, while leaving it otherwise independent. In this modified
form, which — regarded from the point of view of the whole — was
quite logical, St. Thomas fixed the doctrine. Since, however, the
Church always determines when a question “pertains to salva-
tion” and how it is to be decided, in practice the result is the
same. The latter theory, which indeed was related to the theory
of the State current in the Early Church, and which maintained
the “Natural Law” element in the State, became supreme. It,
however, also implies a theocracy, even if in a somewhat modified
form. We can see in this also simply the logical result of the
sociological idea of a religious community based upon absolute
truths and life-values. To the peoples of the ancient world the
State coincided with religion, and the natural sociological
associations of the family, of the race, of the city, and of the
Empire, constituted at the same time religious objects and asso-
ciations for worship. If the religious life cut itself adrift from these
natural forms of association, and if instead it established itself
upon an organization for worship, upon the values of thought.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 231
feeling, and temper, it had then to produce its own organization,
and this organization, in the nature of the case, was obliged to
regard itself as the superior authority, which regulated and pene-
trated the natural forms of association from the standpoint of its
own ideas. This was the significance of the Republic of Plato and
of the Stoics 5 Commonwealth of mankind, and, to a much greater
extent, it was the meaning of the Christian community.
A religious community of this kind will reject the State and
her social associations so long as it does not feel certain of being
able to permeate them; but as soon as it is forced to recognize
the State, whether from interior or exterior causes, it will desire
to penetrate and dominate it, as well as all natural associations,
with its supreme ideal of a society or commonwealth founded
upon ultimate absolute values. Such a result is inevitable; ideals
of this kind will always demand a position of at least spiritual and
intellectual supremacy; even to-day we see the same process at
work even among those who claim most definitely to be spiritually-
minded. But wherever the religious fellowship is incarnated in
the priesthood and in the organism of the Papal Church, there
this dominion will become the dominion of the sacerdotal Church
over the State, of the Pope over kings, and over the social groups
which are subject to them. This is the inevitable and logical result.
The theocracy of the central period of the Middle Ages came
to this conclusion with the full consciousness of its inner necessity,
and upheld it by its terrible ecclesiastical methods of domination,
which even to-day call forth the horror of the reader, and which
modern Catholic Church order, with its predominant spiritual
tendency, likes to ignore, regarding it as uncivilized mediaeval
crudeness which has long been overcome.
This, however, must be said : Whatever we may think of the
methods by which this theory is put into practice, the idea itself
has naturally remained supremely effective down to the present
day. All attempts to revert from this theocracy to the position of
a parallelism have either been united with a revived eschatology,
as among the Spiritual Franciscans, or they have been idealistic
speculations, which wholly misunderstand what are the warring
factors, like Dante’s romantic doctrine of the State ; in any case, in
both instances they were ineffective . 100
Development of Sacramental Doctrine
The third question is that of the method by which such an
ecclesiastical domination can be maintained over the minds of
100 See p. 389*
232 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
men. If these methods are to arise organically out of the nature
of the Church, they must be rooted in the sacramentalism of the
Church ; for at bottom it is upon this fact that the whole priest-
hood is based. The priest alone, by the appointment of Christ,
has in his hands the power of the sacramental impartation of
grace, and thus of the redemptive miraculous element of the
Church, without which there is no deliverance from original sin
or from purgatory.
From this point of view, also, it was essential to develop the
methods of spiritual and ethical control. Although the priesthood
was designed in the first place to secure the religious idea and
tradition which affects and determines the whole structure, yet,
even in the Early Church, far more important than this guarantee
or than the teaching office, was the sacramental power, which,
indeed, had become also in dogma the priestly power, or potestas
ordinis , in the narrowest and most real sense of the word. Sacra-
mental grace is the life of the organism, and is the most essential
element in the miraculous power which circulates through the
Church; in it the presence of the redeeming, sanctifying, em-
powering, and saving mystical Christ is poured into the souls of
men. It is only through sacramental grace that the Love of God
creates that which produces the whole Christian social structure :
the supreme value of each individual soul, and the union of all
in the love of Christ. As time went on, the more the securing of
orthodoxy in doctrine became a matter for the highest courts, all
the more peremptory became the need to surround and include
the whole life of the faithful with sacramental grace. The great
main dogma, therefore, is the development of the doctrine of the
Seven Sacraments, which surround and support human beings
from birth until death, with which is linked the idea of the grace
imparted by these sacraments and its relation to natural qualities
and energies.
The story of the formation of these doctrines in detail belongs
to the history of dogma; here also St. Thomas set the standard.
Our task here is simply to point out the decisive sociological
point of view, namely, the close connection between the third
great ecclesiastical power, the right of jurisdiction, and the
sacraments. That has remained the vital point until the present
day; it was this which enabled the sociological structure of the
mediaeval Church, as the supporter of the unity of civilization, to
realize this ideal of unity. The great weapon of Gregory was
exclusion from the sacraments, or excommunication ; that of his
successors, interdict, and the proclamation of a Crusade. If,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 1233
however, in sharp contrast with the period of the Primitive
Church, excommunication brings with it at the same time the
civic consequences of exclusion from Society and the complete loss
of legal rights, this only shows that in the intervening period
ecclesiastical and social conditions have become very closely
interpenetrated and entangled. In theory the Church holds fast
the ancient spiritual attitude, since she contents herself with a
spiritual judgment ; but she expects from the secular powers the
civil punishment of any person who is no longer fit for ordinary
society. That is not, as is so often asserted, hypocrisy, but it is the
naive conviction which arose out of the union of the spiritual and
the temporal spheres — the opinion, namely, that the sinner and
the heretic may, indeed, find a spiritual forgiveness, but that at the
same time he may be a danger to civil society and to the com-
munity, and that as such he ought to be punished by the civil
authority. We shall find the same opinion among the Reformers.
Indeed, when these weapons were used in an extreme manner,
they aroused misgivings, dim or passionate, against this mingling
of the spiritual and temporal realms. When, however, these
weapons became blunted, they had already fulfilled their
purpose, and in their place a much finer method could be
used — not that of exclusion from the sacraments, but that of
a sacrament whose effect was bound up with the exercise of
jurisdiction over the consciences and the conduct of men. This
is the infinitely important Sacrament of Penance, which, by its
conditional character, was skilfully united with one aspect of the
other sacraments. This sacrament became the great support of
the spiritual domination of the world. Out of it there develops
the whole Christian ethic of the Church — as self-examination and
direction of conscience, as absolution, and as the key to the whole
system of satisfactions and merits, as the unification of all ethical
problems and inconsistencies by the authority of the Church,
which removes the responsibility for the unification of the duties
of life from the individual, and takes it on to its own shoulders.
Again, through this sacrament the ethic of the Church develops
out of a mere theory into a practical power, which punishes,
counsels, and purifies consciences great and small, noble and
mean, and which, above all, leads towards the realization of the
true value of life, the rescuing of the soul out of the sinful world.
In all this the close inward connection between the dogma of the
sacrament, and the two dogmas of the unity and of the authority
of the Church, which have already been mentioned, is quite clear.
It has also been quite clearly recognized and expressed in theory.
234 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
The historical God-Man, who unites in His own Person both
natures, the human and the Divine, has founded the Church as a
reflection of Himself, as a Divine-human organism. On account of
its Divine character this organism must be absolutely uniform,
and must dominate the natural realm, just as in the God-Man
the Divine Nature dominates the human nature. Thus Pie stands
out in the worship of the Church as the sacramental Christ, who,
each time that the Sacrament is celebrated, operates afresh the
union of the Divine and the human, making the sacrificing priest
the one who effects this unity ; thus also He comes to each indi-
vidual, through the vehicle of the Sacrament, through the senses
and yet in a supersensual way, in order to place the natural under
the direction of the Divine, and to impart the Divine in a marvel-
lous manner to the natural and the material. The sacraments
are the extension of the Incarnation, a repetition of the spiritual
process through which Divine grace enters into human life. This
method of controlling human life by Divine grace can never be
a merely magical process. In order to be in line with Christian
thought in general it ought also to work out along ethical lines ;
this leads to the growth of the Sacrament of Penance, which is
conceived in an entirely juridical and ethical spirit. From the doc-
trinal point of view this sacrament occupies a secondary position,
since it has no materia sacramenti of its own ; in practice, however,
together with the Mass, it becomes the main sacrament.
The unity and autonomy of the Church, the penetration of
humanity with sacramental grace, coupled with the control of
conscience — all these elements are most intimately and vitally
related to each other, and they complete the sociological struc-
ture . 10021 In this closely knit organization the new principle of a
Universal Church meant a revolution in the previous organization
of the State, and the separation of Church and State. But although
here and there a few idealists wished to see the Church return to
her original (Apostolic) poverty, and take up a really detached
position alongside of the State, which would serve the Church
freely and willingly while retaining its own entire independence,
this separation of the Church from the State did not mean the
separation of the State from the Church.
The whole feudal development of Church property is retained ;
the Church still takes an organic part in the life of the State, and
in the administration of justice; no longer; however, in the service
of a theocratic royalism, but in the service of an hierarchical
theocracy and of an ecclesiastically controlled civilization.
l00a See p. 390.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
235
Development of the Ecclesiastical
Unity of Civilization
In place of the Carolingian type there arises the Gregorian . 101
This means the introduction of a civilization directed by the
Church, who imbibed her ideas and her standards from the highly
developed civilization of France, which was then far ahead of
other countries. In itself, indeed, the Gregorian ideal is mainly
juridical and diplomatic. It is, however, also an ethical ideal,
since it is based upon the assumption that the dominion of the
Truth will bring about the moral renewal of the world. The papal
Universal Church then became a civilizing, spiritual, and uniform
principle, gathering up into itself the French theology of the
Bernhardines and of the Victorines of Normandy and of Abelard,
together with the later development of the Mendicant Orders
and their spiritual and scientific activity. The combination of
Italian jurisprudence and French theology, philosophy, and
poetry, created the spirit of the ecclesiastical universal civilization.
We cannot here take up the question of the source of this magnifi-
cent development of the French-Norman spirit and of its pre-
dominant position in Western civilization. Above all, the Uni-
versal Church preserved the fruits of the Territorial Church system
in its influence over the spiritual and the temporal realms, placing
them under the guidance of the autonomous Church, of her
powerfully developed jurisdiction, and of her philosophical and
theological, as well as of her juridical and political thought. Thus
that which antiquity did not possess, the unity of an ecclesiastical
and Christian civilization, was attained, and the ecclesiastical
ideal exerted an influence which penetrated into the very founda-
tions of Society and of its various individual groups. In the last
resort, therefore, this unity of civilization was based upon the
power of the religious, sacerdotal, sacramental, and ascetic
idea in general ; it was, however, maintained both in theory and
in practice as a civilization of authority and of compulsion, since
at all points it was controlled by the Church, and all opposition
in the realms of custom, politics, and thought was suppressed
by ecclesiastical discipline, and its power of inflicting punishment.
The more the great Church controversy aroused scepticism
in certain directions, encouraging individualism and provoking
hostility which issued ki heretical and fanatical movements, all
the more sharply did the Church forge the terrible weapon of her
101 Cf. Hauck: IV ", chapter /, in which, namely, the continuance and the influence
of the Carolingian type under new exponents are emphasized.
236 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
law against heretics. By means of this law, which was in line with
the development which had now fused the elements into one, she
transformed exclusion from the Church into an annihilation of
civil, or also even of physical, existence . 102
After all, however, this unified civilization upon which all the
social ideas of Catholicism are based, has not yet been adequately
interpreted, nor has the original source of the social conceptions
which proceed from it been sufficiently explained by this glimpse
into the why and the wherefore of that interpenetration of sacred
and secular ideas which was not attained until the Middle
Ages. The formation of a political ecclesiastical civilization in the
five hundred years of the Germanic Territorial Church period,
during which the State, which was only half civilized, became
penetrated by the civilization of the Church, while the latter was
forced by the need of the State into unforeseen developments ;
and the preservation of these results by the Catholic unity of a
compulsory civilization by a new current of asceticism : possibly
this constitutes the heart of the matter, but it is not the only
aspect of the problem. There still remains the question of the
precise nature of that asceticism to which the theocracy assigned
such an exalted position ; for it must prove itself to be something
very different from the suspicious and indifferent attitude of the
Primitive Church towards the world if it was to be capable of
supporting a theocratic civilization of this kind.
Then there is a further question : Why and how did it then
become possible to carry out in practice the Christian moral
standard in the State, in Society, in trade, in economic and family
life, in a way which was impossible for the Early Church with
her views about the sinful, and therefore tainted, origin of the
“world” and all its institutions? That it became possible in theory
can only be explained on the assumption that to some extent it
must previously have become possible in fact; and the reasons
which made this actual realization possible must then give to the
Catholic social ideal of civilization a permanent character and a
permanent relation with definite actual social and economic
conditions. In particular, there is still one final question to con-
sider : In what way did the reconciliation between other-worldly
and this worldly aims take place in theory, as an expression of the
late mediaeval consciousness, so that the theory itself could be
formulated? This reconciliation, which/ because it was first of
all brought about by facts, had all the more urgent need of a
theoretical interpretation, and this led to an important develop-
102 See p. 391.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 237
ment and unification of the Christian world of thought. This last
question leads us then directly to the main point of our inquiry,
to the presentation of the social philosophy of Thomism, and of
its general theological ethical principles. But we must first answer
the two previous questions.
5. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ASCETICISM IN THE SYSTEM OF
MEDIAEVAL LIFE
The Ascetic Idea
The international ecclesiastical civilization was brought into
being on a flood-tide of asceticism, and the theocratic universal
Church took this asceticism under her own control.
For this reason this ecclesiastical civilization has been regarded
by some thinkers as a civilization based upon pure asceticism. This
view, however, raises the further question: If this were so, how
could this asceticism have been transformed into a system of
world dominion and a world civilization? It has been suggested
that perhaps this change took place because asceticism, in spite
of its own preoccupation with other-worldly aims, did realize that
salvation was incarnate in the sacramental Church of this present
world, and that therefore it felt obliged to establish the dominion
of the Divine Society which w r as the channel of redemption to
humanity. The fact that it went farther, and accepted and fostered
secular elements of culture, is explained by saying that this hap-
pened partly in the interest of the supremacy of the Church, partly
in an inconsistent adjustment to the nature of things, which, it
realized, could not be destroyed . 103 It is, however, impossible that
a really pure asceticism jcould have achieved such a complete
change, if it had actually been the dominant ideal and an end
in itself. Wherever and whenever the ascetic ideal actually did
predominate, it always had the effect of breaking up the ecclesi-
astical unity of civilization and the theocratic world supremacy.
The contradictory opinions of Peter Damiani and of St. Bernard,
the opposition of Arnold of Brescia, and the development of
the Waldensians and the Franciscans illustrate this fact very
clearly.
From that point of view it would also be impossible to under-
stand the development of agriculture and of territorial dominion,
of art and science, simply from the Religious Orders, and from
103 See p. 393.
s 3 8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the stimulus which they gave to these things ; above all, there is
no logical connection between this view and the social doctrines
of the Middle Ages, which incorporate the Family, the State, and
economics quite positively into the Corpus Christianum. Asceticism
cannot have been the unique and only recognized ideal of perfec-
tion, and therefore the essence and the principle of mediaeval
Catholicism, in opposition to which everything else was a com-
promise which was contrary to its own principles. Even from the
point of view of the whole historical nature of Christian asceticism
this was impossible.
Asceticism is an extremely complex phenomenon, and its rela-
tion to the fundamental thought of Christianity is a very compli-
cated question.
The Gospel gave rise to two tendencies, which led, not in the
direction of actual asceticism certainly, but of a decided other-
worldliness and an attitude of marked detachment on the part
of the Christian community towards the forms of a fully developed
secular life. The first of the influences which led in this direction
was the central position assigned to love to God and man as the
supreme end of life, both in ethics and religion, to which all else is
subordinate, and alongside of which the institutions of this world
— with the possible exception of the Family — only receive scant
attention, now and again, as matters of slight importance. The
second influence was the rigorism of the ethic of love and of
intention, which renounces law and violence, and which tries,
whenever it is at all possible, to achieve everything through
personal influence and by an inner victory over evil. It can
be easily understood that the combination of these two influ-
ences made it difficult for Christianity to become part of the
life of the great world. This difficulty was only increased by the
attitude of the early Apologists, who laid down a hard and fast
line of absolute demarcation between the Church, with its super-
natural fife, and the world, which was sunk in the corruption of
original sin, and was outside the realm of grace. The tension was
further heightened when the Church came into touch with the
upper classes in Society, and their connection with civilization.
This fact, together with the incursion of all the ascetic ideas of
the period and the development of methods of religious con-
centration and revival, led to the rise of asceticism and then of
monasticism. But, in spite of the belief in original sin, devils, and
demons, the idea of the original goodness of the world and of
creation still remained, and from this fundamental position it
was possible, quite logically, to accept the doctrine that social
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 23$
institutions are based upon a Divine Law of Nature which is
identical with the Law of Moses.
The result of all this, however, was that Christianity broke up
into a host of almost entirely incompatible tendencies : there was
the way of ecclesiastical organization, of the monastic effort to
preserve the austere and exalted supernatural ideal, and finally,
there was the way of life in the world which was in accordance
with the Lex naturae — a way of life which, on the one hand, was
obscured by Original Sin, and, on the other, was appointed by
God as a remedy for sin.
This variety of tendencies continued to exist side by side until
the period with which we are now concerned ; the situation was
not in the least altered by the mighty currents of asceticism which
arose out of the Papal theocracy, and the widespread unity of
Christian civilization which it had produced through the Re-
ligious Orders. Asceticism always remained simply one element
among others ; it never became the logical expression of Christian
morality , 104 nor the sole exponent of a theological metaphysical
system. From the theological point of view the main ideas were
a combination of the Old Testament conception of the Creation,
coupled with the ideas of the Stoics and Aristode; even the
increasing influence of Neo- Platonism, which took place after the
period of Augustine, only introduced the idea of a system of
stages; it was not a theory of Dualism.
Under the circumstances it is clear that it was not the secular-
izing influence of the hierarchy, nor a concession to nature, but a
quite logical development, which caused the ascetic, the secular,
and the theocratic elements to become bound together in a
Cosmos of mutual recognition and mutual help, and that within
this Cosmos, asceticism, in its peculiarly Western form, leaves
room for the values and forms of the world. At the same time
the great significance of asceticism remains, as a method of intensi-
fying all religious movements, and as a source of power in periods
of revival ; in the nature of the case, in particular instances this
often led to exaggerations and to sweeping assertions about the
supremacy of asceticism.
On the whole, however, asceticism was still only regarded as
the organized method of revival, proceeding from certain definite
centres; indeed, no religious system or cult has ever dispensed
entirely with ascetic methods of revival and intensification of the
religious life. It is only the modern world which seems to have lost
sight of this fact ; indeed, for the moment it has almost no under-
104 On this point more information will be given immediately.
240 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
standing of this phenomenon at all. This lack of insight is due to
the influence of the idea of Immanence, and to the predominance
of an ethic which is confined solely to this world. In spite of the
influence of asceticism in raising a universal and transcendent
form of religious experience to a great pitch of austerity, energy,
and eccentricity, it still remained — so far as the whole Church
and the official ecclesiastical theory were concerned — simply one
method among others. To sum up : asceticism is a vital method of
reawakening the essential religious spirit; in every fresh assault
upon the Faith it is quickened into fresh life ; its history presents
the ever-recurring features of decline and renewal ; but it is not
the main controlling factor in religion as a whole . 105
The ecclesiastical civilization was shaped far more by the
independent logical evolution of the sociological idea of the
Church (always, of course, combined with asceticism), which
made mankind submit, not to asceticism, but to the sacraments and
to the priesthood. Another important element in this ecclesiastical
civilization, closely related to the Christian influence upon the
world, was the inheritance of ancient civilization which lived on
in the Lex naturae as part of the cultural wealth of the Church
and as the basis of all secular social doctrines, and which after
the Crusades underwent an extraordinary expansion. The fact
remains that even for the Middle Ages the great fundamental
development was this: That alongside of the building up of
the Church there was a process of rapprochement and fusion
with the monotheistic religions and the ethical teaching of the
Ancient World which enabled Christianity to develop still
further, to work out the theoretical content of its intellectual
system, and to develop that side of its life which came into actual
contact with the world. In this respect, however, the Mediaeval
Church, contrasted with the Ancient World, brought in an actual
and theoretical new element. Asceticism, which in the Ancient
World was a dangerous element, and a menace both to the Church
and to the world of thought, was subdued by the Church, and
practically incorporated into the cosmos of ecclesiastical activity,
while in theory it made it possible to secure a harmonious relation-
ship between the piety of mediaeval Christian life in the world,
and the piety of monasticism.
105 The ascetic movements of the Middle Ages are exact parallels of the
Methodist Revival Movements, Holiness or Fellowship Movements, or of the
practices of new cults and devotions like the Devotion to the Sacred Heart,
the devotion to the Virgin of Lourdes, and similar movements, which are being
practised at the present day.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 241
Monasticism absorbed by the Church
In order to form this cosmos the first necessity was to incorporate
asceticism and monasticism into the life of the Church, in a
subordinate position. However hard monasticism might struggle
for a certain measure of independence, and however undefined
had been its relationship with the Early Church, in the Mediaeval
Church it was organized first of all under the bishops, and then,
when the Religious Orders came into existence, under the
Papacy ; every other kind of asceticism either was, or then became,
heretical. Friction between the secular and regular clergy no
longer took the form of struggles about questions of principle ;
they were concerned simply with questions of certain rights
within the ecclesiastical sphere of jurisdiction. In this change, how-
ever, the very idea of monasticism had been altered. Explicitly
it is not an end in itself, but one method used by the Church
for the common purpose of the Church. The Church was attracted
by monasticism because it discerned in it an incomparable method
of renewal and of power. The monachism of the clergy also
meant, above all, that the clergy were being provided with the
strongest incentive for an effective life and for independence of
the world. At the same time it is made quite clear that salvation
is not attained by monasticism and asceticism, but solely and only
through the Church and the sacraments. On the other hand,
however, monasticism also is drawn to the Church. For the work
of revival and reform can only be effected in connection with the
international power of the Church, and the domination of the
monasteries by the civil authorities could only be broken with the
help of the Church ; and, indeed, both the monk’s energy in virtue
and the religious content of the ascetic achievement are dependent
on the impartation of grace through the sacraments ; this, again,
is only possible through the Church . 106
Further, in studying the question of the combination of the
monastic life and the monastic ideal with the ordinary “life in
the world”, we must take into account the Catholic idea of the
organism with its vicarious offerings and integrations, the whole
mediaeval sociological atmosphere of a graded system of class and
rank with its services, which, though they vary in value, are all
necessary for the whole.
Later this idea will be examined in detail ; here it only needs to
be emphasized in so far as it is this which makes it both possible
and necessary for an individual or for a group to offer a vicarious
106 See p. 394.
0 ,
VOL. I.
342 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
oblation for the rest. In the organism the services of the individual
parts are gathered up into the whole ; then from this centre their
influence again flows out into the individual members. The idea
of vicarious repentance and vicarious achievement is really a
living category of religious thought; the vicarious offering of
Christ both as a punishment and as a source of merit is only a
special instance of the general conception ; the spiritual treasury
of the Church, into which those surplus offerings are poured, to
be shared out again as indulgences, is the living, present, concrete
manifestation of this idea.
In this way there arose the conception of the ecclesiastical ranks,
which rise from the laity through the Religious Orders to the
priesthood, and which also indirectly incorporate the lay organ-
izations into the system of the Corpus Christianum.
Thus the duty of those who live “in the world” towards the
whole is that of preserving and procreating the race — a task in
which ascetics cannot share, while they for their part have the
duty of showing forth the ideal in an intensified form, and of
rendering service for others through intercession, penitence, and
the acquisition of merit. This is the reason for the enormous gifts
and endowments to monasteries ; men wanted to make certain of
their own part in the oblation offered by monasticism. And on
the other hand, in the arrangements for a semi-monasticism in
the Tertiary orders (through fellowships and guilds), asceticism
permits a limited kind of asceticism, adjusted to the needs of
those who are living in the world under ordinary conditions.
Asceticism also permits all kinds of adjustments and arrangements,
which only have meaning on the assumption that, in principle,
the life of the world is also necessary to the whole . 107
The unity of the “Ideal of Perfection” demanded by Protestant
and modern individualism is quite foreign to the spirit of this
“organic” way of thought. Since the different services of the
estates are differentiated and yet come together in the unity of
the whole, so also the variety of Christian perfection in manner
and in method and the mutual completion of these differences is,
in this atmosphere, a quite natural and obvious idea. Only at this
stage does there appear the often noticed similarity of the Church,
or rather of the ecclesiastically controlled Corpus Christianum, with
the Platonic State 108 ; the different services, rendered by groups
and estates according to their own natifre, are summed up in the
idea of the whole.
107 Cf. Uhlhorn: Liebestdtigkeit, II, 98 ff., isoff.
108 See p. 395.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 243
These ideas and the atmosphere in which they grew were alien
to the Gospel, and meanwhile its radical individualism had been
strongly suppressed by the ecclesiastical idea of unity; but as
soon as the Church came into contact with the great world its
religious supernaturalism and its rigorism also created certain
difficult problems.
Along its own lines, then, the mediaeval period solved the
problem raised by the Gospel, in that it ensured the supernatural
through asceticism, while at the same time it appointed to people
living in the world a life which only- approximated to asceticism,
and united both classes as complementary elements in the organ-
ism of the Church. Thus the Thomist theory also teaches that
perfection is in itself the same for all Christians, since for all it
depends upon the strength imparted by the sacraments, and
consists for all in the love of God and man. Different methods
might be used by different classes for attaining perfection, in
particular, the ascetics, the Status Monasticus , possessed specially
effective and excellent methods — but nevertheless under certain
circumstances a layman might reach higher degrees of perfection
than a monk. To this conception modern Catholic theologians add
that lay folk both may be, and have been, canonized ; whatever
goes beyond this doctrine is a one-sided, exaggerated, self-
glorification of monasticism, and there is certainly no lack of this
exaggerated emphasis . 109
Thus asceticism is distinguished from the other factors in the
Corpus Christianum , and incorporated into a richer whole. But that
would have been impossible if asceticism had not already con-
tained within its own nature that potentiality, if it really had
consisted solely of penitence, mortification, supernatural con-
templation, with a complete denial of secular life. Very often
asceticism is simply a denial of secular life and nothing else ; when
it takes that line it leads into a blind alley, and excludes all possi-
bility of contact and union with the rest of life. Also it cannot be
denied that a system of grace-morality, which is produced by
means of continual miracles in opposition to the natural powers,
seems to need a supernatural sphere of action which is contrary
to nature ; it is at this point, in fact, that asceticism seems to be
the logical outcome of the mediaeval system, and quite frequently
it feels that this is so in reality.
The elements which ^constitute asceticism are, however, not
exhausted by mortification, contemplation, and penitence. Along-
side of it there are various other elements which transform it
109 See p. 395.
244 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
from an end in itself into a method : it is a method of revival, a
method of controlling and subduing sensuality, a hardening
process in preparation for the ecclesiastical vocation, a way of
practice in virtue and in the cultivation of the religious temper,
a way of heroism and of special excellence ; especially it is always
the accompanying phenomenon of religious excitement, or the
special endowment of energy for the vocation of the popular
evangelist and the missionary. The ethic of grace is, however, no
mere miracle, as will be shown directly in more detail, but the
continuation, purification, and elevation of nature, to which it is
not directly opposed. At this point in particular, in contrast with
all kinds of eccentricities, the Thomist theory has pronounced a
very balanced judgment. Under these circumstances it is compre-
hensible that a complex phenomenon of that kind, in spite of all
its real or apparent negative tendencies, still bears within itself
possibilities of recognition of the world and of positive work in
the world. Neither in theory nor in practice has asceticism been
evolved in a logical sense ; it has simply grown up out of the most
divergent and contradictory ideas, and, while these ideas have
been to some extent fused with each other, the system contains
within itself very varied possibilities.
In any case, as Harnack has shown very finely, this was the
case in Western asceticism. Augustine, a lover of asceticism and a
herald of mystical contemplation, still, in exhortations which are
constantly quoted, commanded the use of the material in the
interest of the spiritual ; his Platonism discerned in the life of this
world, so far as it was not under the yoke of original sin, the
radiance of the heavenly world, and again and again this idea
was applied until the Platonism of the Renaissance.
In a more robust and matter-of-fact way Gregory the Great
prized the merits of monasticism, but with them he also combined
the system of supplementary vicarious offerings which was so
extremely useful in practice. The Benedictine Rule prescribed
manual labour and scientific activity. Charlemagne, as we have
already seen, deliberately restricted monasticism, and made it
particularly useful for the purposes of education and culture. The
asceticism of the early Middle Ages was based primarily upon
eschatological and eudaemonistic ideas, as a way of repentance
for one’s own sin, or for the sin of others, and the acquisition of
merit, and thus at bottom it only unburdens and satisfies the
conscience of the secular estate.
From the tenth century onwards, moreover, the great inter-
national revival movements and the rise of the new Religious
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 245
Orders introduced an extraordinary increase of a spirituality of
a more emotional type whose main examples are St. Bernard
and the Victorines. Contemplation on the Platonist pattern,
and a passionate love of Christ, reawakened by Augustinian
influences and filled with an affecting glow and tenderness,
enrich the whole religious emotional life and raise its tempera-
ture. This, however, is essentially a renewal of the religious idea
in general, which feels itself to be at the service of the Church
and of the brethren.
Contemplation is incomplete without charity, and the Love of
God loves in Him both the ego and all that is highest and greatest
in the world. Franciscan mysticism especially represents, on the
one hand, the highest degree of asceticism, which, however, it
desires to make a method of serving the cause of home missions,
of the people, and of the masses, while, on the other hand, it is
combined with a peculiar religious glorification of Nature and
an individualism of feeling. Thus the individualizing art of the
pre-Renaissance period was able to come into touch with it.
Finally, Dante’s great poem, which reveals the poet as a mystic
and as an admirer of monasticism, in spite of all its deep inner
tension, unites with that, in the most natural way, the humanistic
and ancient elements of admiration for the world, and the prizing
of secular political achievements. In so far, however, as the
ascetic revival-movements strayed into the path of real dualism
and asceticism, they split off from the Church as heresy, whose
roots — from the Catharist to the Franciscan heresy — lay in the
reaction against the secularization of the Church.
Briefly summarized therefore : In itself asceticism is not merely
mortification and dualistic contemplation, but positive work for
the whole, a method of service at the disposal of the Corpus Christ -
ianum , while in its release of religious feeling it forms at the same
time an emotional and artistic transfiguration of the world.
This asceticism did not hinder the formation of a unified
civilization and did not desire to hinder it, and where it did
break through it, it did so only for itself and in a single case, but
not for the whole. Indeed, the manifold creations of a semi-
monasticism showed that asceticism sought to adjust and accom-
modate itself, and in so doing it confessed that it was only rela-
tively necessary. Its great movements helped to float the vessel,
but they did not provide the crew . 110
110 See p. 397.
246 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
6. RELATIVE APPROXIMATION OF THE ACTUAL FORMS OF
SOCIAL LIFE TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL IDEAL
Social History of the Middle Ages
An asceticism of the kind which has just been described, com-
bined with the ideal of love to God and man which it had re-
awakened, could only exist in harmonious co-operation with the
life of the world, if the world, for its part, would, or, indeed, could
submit unequivocally to the ideals of the Gospel. This was Im-
possible during the period in which the Early Church arose ; the
Early Church, therefore, never conceived the idea of a Christian
unity of civilization. The life of the world in which it was placed
was too independent, too settled, and, above all, too complicated,
too much under the dominance of the law and the State, and its
economic conditions were too complicated, for such an ideal to
have been either conceived or realized. At every point the path
was blocked by the spirit of the ancient Polls and of the bureau-
cratic Hellenistic State. The fact that the Middle Ages created
a unity of civilization, at least as an ideal, was due not merely to
the development of the Church and of asceticism, but also to the life
of the world itself, which in its new form fitted in to the whole
more easily than it had done hitherto. For even now the Church
did not think in terms of social reform and social politics, or of
shaping the connection between the economic-legal substructure
and the ethico-spiritual superstructure in harmony with her
ideas, which It would have been her task to create, In spite of the
opposing forces within the actual situation. In this respect the
Church herself, and the Church in particular, was full of the most
unpractical idealism . 111 She seemed to think that if the spiritual
government of the world were functioning properly, and if faith
and love were functioning properly, and if faith and love were
strong and healthy, then all difficulties would solve themselves.
It is true that the Carolingian State and the Territorial Church
system of the early Middle Ages had fused both these elements
with each other. But the only person who had a vision of social
reform was Charlemagne, and he was only able to take this view
because the actual situation forced his State and the Church into
a position of co-operation ; and, moreover, because the situation
itself made that kind of fusion possible. Again, both Church and
State became inextricably involved in each other’s fortunes simply
111 Cf. Hauck: KG . D., 77, 222; the beginnings during the time of Charlemagne,
however, 77, 277 ff.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 247
through the force of the circumstances which made this union
possible. Therefore, when the Papal theocracy took over the
supreme power from Kings and Emperors, it was simply entering
into their inheritance. This all happened without further reflec-
tion, and without any deeper interference with life. The fact that
the Church and the secular realm there co-operated harmoni-
ously does not mean that the Church had consciously embarked
upon a policy of social reform ; it was simply the actual result of
certain given circumstances. The real and the ultimate reason,
therefore, for the possibility of an interior union, must have lain
in the legal, economic, and social conditions of the Roman-
Germanic peoples themselves, who either accepted the Ethos of
the Church without question or were ready to do so. However
foreign and hostile the militaristic feudal spirit, with its warlike
conception of honour, its emphasis on brute force, and all the
coarseness and insecurity for life with which it was combined,
may seem to the Christian spirit, still, on the other hand, there
must have been something in these conditions which made it
possible to effect such a change more readily than in either the
ancient or the modern world. If we try to distinguish the unique
element of the Middle Ages, as contrasted with ancient and
modern times, it will then become clear why it was easier to
accomplish this change, and therefore to make it possible to
establish a relative Christian unity of civilization.
In the decaying Roman Empire, in spite of all its political up-
heavals, the main hindrance was still the continuance of the
ancient idea of the State, the domination of a law which formally
controlled all human relationships, the administration of a
rationalizing bureaucracy, and, finally, the influence of a money
economy which, although its force was exhausted, still made
itself felt in its secularizing effects. This was a hindrance which
continued even after the ancient pagan religious system had been
destroyed. The Middle Ages, on the other hand, had no con-
ception of the State at all in either the ancient or the modern
sense of the word. Mediaeval economic life was based on agricul-
ture ; there was, therefore, no official class, or, rather, its officials
were paid in landed property ; officials thus became landowners
who clung to the ownership of their land as a matter of private
right. The military organization in particular, since it was im-
possible to use the old military levies for wars in distant lands,
and for longer periods, was bound up with this system of feoffment
and the sharing of immunities (or special charters of privilege).
It was, however, only the great feudal lords, or the military levies
24B THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
which they had created, who were affected by this system. This
explains why the military class, and, later on, the knightly class,
became quite distinct from the peasant and bourgeois sections of
the population. Thus there arose two main classes within the
State ; the Church and the clergy formed the third class, in so far
as the clergy, represented by their leaders, did not enter into the
ranks of the feudal lords.
The numerous gifts to, and classifications of ordinary freemen,
due to economic, social, and other similar reasons, had a similar
effect, so that the ancient popular community of nobles and free
peasants was transformed into the artificially restricted and
most complicated, almost chaotic, system of feudal tenure, which
was controlled by the authority of King and Emperor, and also
by that of the Church, as supreme ruler and supreme feudal lord.
In this system the Church claimed the princes as her feudal
tenants, and absorbed the whole system into her hierarchically
graded organization. On the other hand, under these various
suzerainties, there were sections of the population which were
bound to the Crown lands and the demesnes. These groups,
however, were very different from the slaves of the Ancient
World ; they were simply bound to the soil, and to the various
degrees of service which that entailed. The tendency towards
personal freedom, however, increasingly developed, and the
relationship of absolute submission gradually changed into one
of mutual service and obligation, of personal contract and of
loyalty. Under these circumstances there was no conception of the
State as such, no common and uniform dependence upon a
central power, no all-dominating sovereignty; no equal exercise
of a public civil law ; no abstract basis of association in formal
and legal rules. At any rate, in so far as anything of that sort did
exist at all, it was related only to the Church, and not in any way
to the State. The dominant sentiment in human relationships
was not obedience to authority, but contract, reverence, loyalty,
faith — all of which were elements of feeling ; the spirit of feudalism
penetrated even into the serf-relationship ; not even the army was
based upon abstract law and obedience, but upon the good will
and loyalty of the troops.
The groups which thus came into being then became united
among themselves to all other groups belonging to the same class
of Society ; this led to the organization of corporations, which
ranged from the groups composed of the knights and nobles,
down to those composed of free peasants, serfs, workmen attached
to the court, and manual labourers ; and later it extended to the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 249
city industries. All these corporations possessed a law of their
own, apart from the law of the State; to a great extent, indeed,
they exercised their own right of jurisdiction in harmony with
this law. Further, in these corporations or guilds there was a
spirit of solidarity and of personal understanding and helpfulness,
which, in spite of its traditional severity, was equally opposed to
all legal formalism and appealed chiefly to the element of feeling.
Finally, law in the narrower sense, civil and penal law, corre-
sponded to this general spirit. Dispersed among many legal
authorities, found by the assessors according to use and equity,
to a great extent using a symbolism entirely opposed to the whole
idea of abstract law, above all with no knowledge of the spirit of
the Roman idea of property, or of abstract trade and money laws,
this law was itself the expression of a society which had not yet
been legally organized on a basis of formal rights and general
equality. The Church alone had a written law and a formal
process ; this, however, was due to the special Divine character of
the Church, and was strongly influenced by her standards.
This whole state of affairs was connected with the return to an
economic system based on agriculture, for which the way had
already been prepared by the period of late antiquity, and which
was ultimately completed by the continental civilization of the
Middle Ages. It was a return to simpler conditions of life, in
which both personal relationships and the remains of the ancient
socialistic collective life were predominant. The spirit of the
ancient city-state had been broken. The only vestiges which
remained were the Stoic and Platonist elements which were
preserved by the sacerdotal class, and those were the very elements
which had already caused its destruction.
The agrarian character of this civilization, however, involved
small and scattered settlements, the exclusion of the right of
free change of domicile, as each region had to have its own lord,
and each lord his own land, and ultimately every workman and
manual labourer was obliged to have his own piece of soil ; those
who lost this were declasses . This meant, however, that great
importance attached to personal relationships, which developed
a sense of solidarity in the ordering of life, and a widespread
community feeling, expressed in mutual help and interdependence,
in which all the people living in one place became a kind of united
body, based on a spirit bf mutual protection and mutual service.
The elements which were lacking were the mobilization of life
and of intelligence, independence of the direct gift of Nature, and
confidence in a rationalism which regulates and creates social
250 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
conditions. In this situation everything seemed to be the gift of
nature, the obvious way of life, and thus the result of the Divine
ordering, whether as a good gift or as a penalty and judgment.
The pilgrim, the traveller, the vagabond depend upon charity
and hospitality, which thus seemed to supplement completely
the normal arrangements of life by means of special demonstra-
tions of charity. For a long time, even after the towns had come
into existence, and had drawn to themselves masses of people from
agrarian serfdom, there still prevailed in them, so far as it was
possible, patriarchal authority and subordination, comradeship
and mutual contract, that is, a spirit of mutual loyalty and
respect, which was very different from the spirit of law in both
the Ancient and the Modern World.
In the Ancient World the city-state practically destroyed agri-
cultural life and absorbed everything into itself ; but the mediaeval
industrial town long remained semi-agrarian in character ; at a
later stage we shall see the special significance of the mediaeval
town in the development of the ethico-religious ideal.
Above all, the intellectual and ethical fundamental elements
of the social type produced by a money economy were lacking.
As yet there was no money economy worth the name. In the
North, at least, it was very restricted until well into the urban
period, and during the period when Catholic social ideals were
being developed it was merely subordinate to a natural economy.
That intellectual and moral type was also lacking which usually
begins to make its own characteristic mark upon the minds of
men, even when the money economy has not reached the stage
of unrestricted calculating capitalism, or the spirit of gain for the
sake of gain. Where this spirit predominates it makes all values
abstract, exchangeable, and measurable; it mobilizes property
and, in a way of which no one hitherto had dreamed, advancing
beyond the merely natural dependence of life, it groups together
the economic values and the possibilities which they contain.
The economic system based on money depersonalizes values,
makes property abstract and individualistic, creates a rational
law of trade and possessions, raises men above natural conditions
of life, unites its fortunes with forethought, intelligence, and
calculation, replaces the idea of Providence and the spirit of
mutual help and solidarity of those who are bound together in
loyalty to one another, by products which are at all times ready
for use ; it produces great differences in possessions and in needs,
and leads from the simple standpoint of the consumer to an active
production of artificial values and conditions. It is the cause of the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 251
development of formal abstract law, of an abstract, impersonal
way of thinking, of rationalism and relativism. As a result it
leads to a restless and changing social differentiation which is
based not upon the unchanging land, but upon accidental
accumulations of money which can change anything into any-
thing else. The personal relationships depending on nature and
on social groups are dissolved ; the individual gains an abstract
freedom and independence, and, on the other hand, deteriorates
into unknown forms of dependence which seem to be the powers
of superior common sense and the sum of attractive possibilities.
The individual makes up for the loss of concrete individuality,
that is, of an originality which is infinitely differentiated and
secured by corporate relations, by abstract individualism ; that is,
by the assertion of individual powers, from which it builds up
rationally unions, group fellowships, institutions, and enterprises,
and to which it makes conditions rationally serviceable. These
results came about very slowly and gradually after the rise of the
money economy which began after the Crusades and was con-
nected with the town industries.
During the period when the ecclesiastical social doctrines were
being developed this spirit and type of capitalism did not exist
at all. The society of that day inhabited regions which had been
recently cleared ; the population was sparse, the death-rate high ;
means of communication were primitive, and life itself was
insecure. The social system was intelligently organized on an
individualistic basis in direct dependence upon Nature, in asso-
ciations which were based partly upon brute force, quite rational-
istically conceived, and also upon the sentiments of inward rever-
ence and loyalty. Science and literature were limited to the
smallest groups. Popular thinking was dominated by phantasy
and symbolism. The need for unity in life and thought was
extremely slight, and was in large measure satisfied by the idea
of the unity of the Church and of Christendom, and also by the
Christian view of the world, with its teaching on the Creation
and the End of the world, and its central point in the institution
of grace, the Church. Both in the spiritual and in the temporal
realm the social fabric was held together by habit and custom, by
reverence and faith, agreement and loyalty, by many of the customs
involved in the holding of property in common, and by a mutual
helpfulness, which, owing to the defective means of communi-
cation, and in the absence of a money-economy traffic in goods,
is the natural basis for the existence of the individual group . 112
112 See p. 398.
252 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Mediaeval Society and the Christian Ethic
This whole social structure, with its personal relationships open
to everyone, with its graded system of estates and corporations,
with its emphasis on the existing conditions of authority and their
utilization for mutual service, with its emancipation of the indi-
vidual within his appointed sphere, with its lack of abstract formal
justice, with its exclusive groups and its fine shades of feeling in
the sense of solidarity, with its fairly equal range of material need
(which means at bottom that a man’s wealth is proportionate to
the number of people for whom he is responsible, and that power
and position or prestige are dependent upon the possession of
land and tenants), with its confidence in the spirit of mutual
agreement, loyalty, and reverence, with its tendency to humanize
even the serf-relationship : this prepared a comparatively favour-
able soil for the realization of the ethical ideals of Christendom
as they had been formulated under the guidance of the Church.
Even when art and science began to develop in closest contact
with the Church, for a long time they both remained closely
connected with the Church ; in fact, there were no independent
secular values of civilization at all which might have felt and
claimed a Divine right to exist apart from the Church and her
ideals. The only sovereignty that existed was that of the Church ;
there was no sovereignty of the State, nor of economic produc-
tion, nor of science or art. The “other-worldly” ideal of the Gospel
had to contend against worldliness, love of pleasure, coarseness,
and violence, but it had no rivals in the realm of the spirit ; nor
did it come into conflict with any order of secular civilization
containing its own law and authority which had an existence
apart from the Church. Since civilized life was still so little
developed, and was also constantly being broken up by almost
uncontrollable impulses of passion and of unrestrained violence,
it was quite possible to unite with it the pessimism of the Middle
Ages, with its emphasis on sin and the sense of transitory existence,
which formed the illusion of the sole supremacy of the religious
values of life, and which was strengthened by every means
imagination could devise. Man’s relation to the world was con-
ceived in terms of “duty”. The whole outlook and conditions of
life which existed at that time were not unfavourable to the
growth of the new ecclesiastical social ideals. The conception of
“duty”, the inwardness of an ethic which had no place for
abstract law, but was primarily concerned with the cultivation
of a right spirit in personal relationships, and the ideal Christian
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 253
anarchism of a spiritual ethic ; indeed, the whole Christian
emphasis on the moral value of an “inner 53 disposition and a
spirit of love which finds expression in mutual help and service,
and in a fight against the worship of mammon : all these elements
took root in comparatively favourable soil.
Above all, the conditions of property and possessions were also
favourable to this ethical system. As the Church itself was a great
communistic institution, full of the spirit of solidarity and care for
all, so every smaller group bore the same stamp of mutual love
and loyalty and service. The charity of the Church, particularly
that of the Religious Orders, was mainly needed for the service
of the declasses, the sick, and the abnormal. On the other hand,
the presence of such needy folk was considered normal and
desirable, since they provided an opportunity for the exercise of
charity ; far from being hindered and set aside by a rational social
policy they formed a normal Christian “class 55 of their own,
which was regarded as necessary for the whole. In any case, in
theory and in ideal it is permissible to regard the matter in this
way. Thus we can understand how it became possible to regard
the secular life, as well as the ascetic life, as coming under the
control of Christian standards; although in the ascetic life the
conditions were more secure and favourable, yet it was possible
for the secular life to be controlled by the Christian ethic. The
only difference involved was one of degree, and that did not
hinder the unity of civilization . 113
From another point of view, however, this social structure was
closely connected with the warlike spirit of feudalism and with
the feudal principle of honour ; thus at this point it came into
conflict with the Christian doctrine of non-resistance, of Christian
humility, and, above all, with the Christian idea of love. Here, too,
there existed in reality a deep inward hostility towards the
universal religious ethic of humanity. In these circumstances
it seemed as though the Christian ideal could only be realized
within a limited group ; it was then that the cloister appeared to
present the only conditions within which the Christian ethic
could be practised without compromise. The attacks on the
secularization of the Church, the attempts to make the incumbents
of collegiate churches submit to the rule of the canons, and
the ever-renewed assaults of asceticism, were all directed simply
against the absorption of the ecclesiastical dignitaries themselves
into the feudal system. This undercurrent of coarseness and
violence, however, coupled with the world’s conception of
113 See p. 399.
a 5 4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
honour, constituted a foil for the ecclesiastical and ethical system,
•which impelled it to a vigorous assertion of its existence, and
prevented it from degenerating into mere hypocrisy or senti-
mentality. The Church also undertook to transmute the feudal
spirit itself into something ethical, in the ecclesiastical sense of
the word, by making the order of knighthood a semi-spiritual
dignity, and by consecrating its militarism to ideal ends — the
defence of widows, orphans, and the oppressed ; by transforming
the idea of honour into an obligation towards God and man, and
into a virile loyalty to Christ and the Saints ; and by directing the
cult of women into the service of the Mother of God. In so doing
the Church incorporated the military system and the use of force,
by diverting it into Christian channels, into the ecclesiastical
system of morals. This is the peculiar significance of the Crusades,
which were organized by the Church with the aim of diverting
into Christian channels the military element, together with all
the social difficulty and conflict of the feudal world ; from this
point of view the Crusades were just as useful for external pur-
poses as was asceticism for the inner life of the Church. The ethic
of love could not do without the ethic of force, but, so far as it
could, it placed it at the disposal of the service of love and of
faith.
Although, in spite of this, a strong secular lay civilization,
governed by the ideals of chivalry, came into being, this lay
civilization was then either replaced by the bourgeois town
civilization, or very greatly restricted. Finally, with the aid of the
Mendicant Orders who helped the lower classes, this bourgeois
civilization (just as in the case of chivalry, only with far greater
effect and influence on history) was also guided into religious
channels, which meant that the development of knightly civiliza-
tion did not lead to a break between it and the ecclesiastical
civilization . 114
Ethical Significance of the Mediaeval Town
We have now reached the point at which we ought to turn to
the consideration of the ethical and spiritual significance of the
mediaeval town. The ownership of the land which had grown up
out of the loss of ancient popular freedom, out of the military
organization, and out of the political needs of the monarchy, had
never fully met the requirements of the Christian way of life, in
spite of the fact that much of its organization was conceived in
the Christian spirit. The reason for this lay mainly in the great
1W See p. 399.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 255
differences of social position, in the feudal system itself, and in its
use of violence. Only when the city, which arose out of the decay
of the system of territorial dominion and its residue, gathered
into one the varied population which was made up of every con-
ceivable kind of element, was the sphere prepared, within which
the great advantages of mediaeval society could be cleansed from
the coarseness and violence of feudalism.
The one vital need of city life — essentially an industrial asso-
ciation — is peace, with which is combined freedom, and the
sharing of each individual citizen in the life of the city as a whole,
with freedom to work without disturbance and a right to acquire
property by personal effort and labour. All these characteristics
suggest a certain parallelism between the city and the claims of
the Christian ethic. The town represented a non-military, peaceful
community of labour, needing the military element solely as a
means of protection, and devoid as yet of capitalistic and city
features. As such it was a picture of the Christian Society. This
parallelism is exemplified by St. Thomas, as we shall see later
when we study this question in greater detail.
From the standpoint of political and economic history, the
period of town civilization, which begins with the twelfth century,
is regarded mainly as a preparation and foundation for the
modern world. At the same time, this period which is character-
ized by its great cathedrals and their intensive Church life ; its
religiously consecrated guilds and corporations ; its social and
political efforts for the spiritual and material welfare of its
citizens ; its Christian parochial schools and its charitable institu-
tions ; its peace and its public spirit, has a direct significance for
the history of ethics and of religious life, and it constitutes the
high-water mark of the development of the mediaeval spirit.
At first the main economic features of agrarian and rural society
were retained, together with all that was in harmony with the
ethic of the Church; while those persistent stumbling-blocks,
militaristic feudalism and widely separated social grades based
on the distribution of property, were absent.
In contradistinction to the ancient Polls, in which aristocratic
landowners lived together, which developed its own political and
commercial policy, and educated its citizens on the basis of slave
labour, as men of independent means (whether large or small)
and State pensioners, the mediaeval inland industrial town was a
firmly established fellowship of labour and of peace, in which a
modest amount of property of equal value was held by the
citizens. The mediaeval town, with its strong sense of solidarity,
256 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
thus proved to be far better adapted to the spread of the Christian
ethic than the ancient Polis.
It was the city also which first produced that intensity and
elasticity of intellectual life without which a vigorous develop-
ment of the Christian world of thought is impossible ; this is the
reason why, from the very beginning, Christianity was a religion
of the city. But the mediaeval industrial town was still very closely
connected with the conditions of the simpler agrarian life, and as
a town of free labour and fellowship it was so far removed from
the spirit of the ancient city-state that the ideal of a secular life
controlled by the Christian ethic thus took root more easily in the
town. The later development of city life, however, did sever this
relationship with Christian thought, especially in the Italian
cities. 114 *
To sum up : It was thus at first actually due to pure coincidence
that the social, economic, and political conditions of mediaeval life
made a comparatively thorough and direct Christianization of
civilization possible.
Naturally, however, this practical coincidence did not exclude
thoughtful examination of the facts. In theory the various elements
were reconciled, and ideal rules for the regulation of ideal condi-
tions were deduced from them. Only thus was the foundation laid,
and the ecclesiastical unity of civilization achieved. This world
of ideas became the permanent foundation of Catholic social
doctrine.
This subject, therefore, needs special treatment. It leads us to
the consideration of Thomism, whose doctrines have already been
considered essentially in connection with particular questions of
mediaeval dogma and asceticism. We have now to deal with the
theoretical design of the unity of civilization as it is developed in
the teaching of the great Saint, and as a result of which he has
become the standard theologian of Catholicism.
U4a Max Weber has drawn my attention to this aspect of the significance of the
town. See also Lamprecht: DG. Ill ; Bucher: Entstehung der Volkswirischafi;
Schmoller: Grundriss , 254-276; and in particular the great article by Max Weber
entitled Agrargeschichte ( Altertum ) HWB der Staatswissenschaften 3 , in which the
difference between the town in classical antiquity and in the Middle Ages is
treated in a most illuminating way. — Arnold: Recht und Wirtschaft in geschichtlicher
Ansicht, 1863, says on p. 83 : “At the outset the towns were nothing more than
artificial hot-houses of the Church. 55 But even^here there were serious class
conflicts ; cf. Kautsky: Sozialismus , 40-103.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
25 1
7. THE ILLUMINATION OF THE THEORY OF THE ECCLESIAS-
TICAL UNITY OF CIVILIZATION BY THE THOMIST ETHIC
Character of the Thomist Ethic
The ecclesiastical unity of civilization was developed, both
in theory and in practice, under the influence of theological
ethics.
It coincided with the strongly developed, essentially Romance
theology and ecclesiastical philosophy of the High Middle Ages,
and, since this kind of theology chiefly set itself the task of recon-
ciliation, unification, and systematization, so, above all, on its side,
ethics strove to reconcile natural and supernatural morality, the
Natural and the Divine Law, the natural powers of free-will and
the supernatural powers of grace.
Since (as was the case in classical Antiquity) politics, economics,
and social doctrine thus remain under the dominion of ethics,
this ethic proves that neither in theory nor in practice has it any
conception of the possibility of the independent development of
all these sciences and tracts of human life from within, out of
their own sense of inner necessity and fundamental psychological
aptitude. This ought scarcely to be regarded as an imperfection
in theory — it is due rather to the extraordinary lack of practical
development which these questions had experienced in comparison
with the modern world ; this lack of practical experience is
revealed in this fact : when these questions are discussed the
moral judgment which is passed upon them is always based
solely upon a comparison with a purely ideal standard. A
social order which had reached a higher practical stage of
development would not have allowed itself to be so completely
dominated by ethics.
Thus everything depended upon the character of the reconcilia-
tion, and it was only natural that this should be effected first of
all with the help of that equation which had already been formu-
lated by the Early Church — the equation, that is, of the Natural
Law of the Stoics with the Mosaic-Christian Law of Revelation,
as well as with the aid of the distinction — also under the influence
of the Stoics — between an absolute and a relative Law of Nature.
This equation worked out in two ways : on the one hand the State
was regarded as something Divine, while on the other it was held
to be the result of sin. The former view was the one which pre-
dominated during the early Middle Ages, in connection with the
Germanic Territorial Church system and the Carolingian idea
VOL. I. R
258 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the State. The Christianized Germanic monarchy did not
consider itself to be the result of sin, although it was still firmly
believed that the absolute Law of Nature — of equality and of
co mmunis m — had characterized the primitive state of man. In
the Gregorian conflicts, however, the other aspect of Christian
Natural Law was emphasized — the conception of the State as
both the result of sin and a remedy for sin. For that very reason,
then, the State had to be placed under the direction of the
ecclesiastical authority and system of thought, by which it needed
to be purified, consecrated, and controlled if it was to lose the stain
of its sinful origin. Since, at the same time, the Roman abso-
lutist conception of the authority of the State had disappeared
and the Germanic idea prevailed, by which the elected sovereign
was laid under a strict obligation to perform his righteous
duties, from this idea it then became possible to draw the con-
clusion that unrighteous kings might be deposed, and that the
power to appoint and control kings should be in the hands of the
Pope . 115 Once the uniformity of an ecclesiastically controlled
respublica Christiana had thus been established, the problem then
arose, not merely of incorporating the State and Society in the
Church externally by legal and diplomatic methods, but also of
proving this incorporation intellectually and dialectically, and
thus of creating a uniform Christian ethic.
Along with the development of dogma and metaphysics which
were drawn into new problems by Arabic-Jewish Aristotelianism,
which had to fight against heresy, and which had to place ecclesi-
astical science at the disposal of the ecclesiastical unity of civiliza-
tion, this led also to a fresh revival and elaboration of the social
philosophy and ethics which were a combination of Early Christian
and Stoic elements. Even in the Early Church, behind the influ-
ences of Platonism and Stoicism, Christian thinkers had discerned
that the purely positive miracle of the Church was due to the
presence of universal, interior, inevitable, spiritual laws. This
vision led the Early Church to an intensive universal breadth,
and also to the extension of her influence over tracts of social
life which were remote from the Gospel. At this period in her
history these methods of making Christianity universal were once
more required and were quickened into new life.
The Church is the universal principle, and strives to appropriate
everything that will enable it to representrChristianity as universal
truth and as an ethic which is applicable in all circumstances.
The fundamental happening in the Early Church, the fusion
115 See p. 400.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 259
of the positive, historical, Christian elements with the universal
intellectual necessities and laws of Platonism and Stoicism,
now produced fresh forms of life. The main tendency which this
process of truth revealed, that is, that of bringing the whole of life
into organic connection with religious thought, now achieved a
success, which the Early Church, with its mere toleration of the
Law of Nature and its institutions, could not have attained.
Primarily, in this the Church was only reaping the harvest of
the results of the universal change in the general situation, but,
at the same time, in the combination of the ideas of Augustine,
Gregory the Great, Dionysius the Areopagite, Aristotle, and the
Jewish and Arabic philosophers, it developed ideas which were
completely new, and which went far beyond the early equation.
Content of the Thomist Ethic
Here we are concerned with the elucidation of these facts by
the content of the Thomist ethic . 116
The principles of this ethic lie, like those of knowledge, in the
metaphysical sphere; this is, of course, obvious in connection
with such a purely religious habit of mind ; it was recognized as
such in exactly the same way by Stoicism and Platonism. The
Aristotelian doctrine also, which was now assimilated by mediaeval
thought, in spite of its empiricism took its share in those state-
ments of idealistic and religious speculation, and especially added
to the metaphysical ethic of reason the reference that in all the
laws of reason we have to do with the gradual realization of the
dominating aim of reason in particular spheres of Reality. Thus,
according to the argument of all competent judges, the principle
of ethics lies first of all in the eternal. Divine, world-wide, and
natural Law of Reason, which governs the whole cosmos, and
which in the different spheres of Reality realizes their special
purpose, according to the manner, which, for the time being, is
fitted for them, which in each lower sphere prepares the way for
the succeeding higher sphere ; in the sphere of human life this
becomes the reasonable law of freedom, which has to regulate in
a rational way the senses, the affections, and the passions towards
the end of reason.
The ethical dualism which the Stoics had already developed
in their later systems of the opposition between the Natural Law
and the emotions is here sharply formulated. At the same time,
however, after the manner of Aristotle, it is nevertheless qualified
in so far as the upward development of Reason out of the natural
116 See p« 400.
a 6o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
impulses and affections, or the insight which regulates the content
of the soul, relates itself to the rational end by means of reason
and of order, and makes it the material for morality.
Looked at from the human side, this impulse towai'ds the goal
of reason is represented as virtue; from the Godward side it
presents itself as the Law of Reason imparted to nature, which
also as freedom is the effect of the Divine Law in man ; thus the
Aristotelian doctrine of virtue and of the end, and the Stoic
doctrine of the Law of Nature and of Reason, are united and
fused into one.
With that synthesis, too, there is foreshadowed the Christian
idea of grace, which actualizes itself in the form of freedom ; it is
still only the Divine Law of Reason, that is, God Himself, who
works in freedom. In the Primitive State this Natural Law pre-
vailed in complete clarity, and although if it had continued the
natural inequality of mankind would have made itself felt, intro-
ducing all kinds of conditions of authority and subordination, yet
it would not have developed any legal position of authority, but
only voluntary service, nor private property, but community of
property in the spirit of love. The sexual nature of humanity, too,
might have existed without libido solely at the service of the
purpose of reason, as the completion of humanity to the number
willed by God. The bringing forth of children would have been
without pain, and patriarchal male domination would not have
controlled the family ; labour would have been free from wearing
toil and anxiety, and the earth free from suffering and death . 117
When by sin man fell from this Primitive State, he still retained a
considerable amount of this practical reason, or the knowledge
of Natural Law in its main principles.
This knowledge, however, became more and more dim, so that
the application of the Natural Law (the development of infer-
ences from it, and their consolidation into a positive human law
which necessarily varies in form because it is obliged to adapt
itself to variations in period and in circumstances), became more
and more difficult. Thus a new Divine revelation of the Natural
Law became all the more desirable the more that men learned
to feel their need of it, and were thus prepared to receive it.
On the other hand, after the Fall the Natural Law assumed a
new form, as the poena and remedium peccati ; and the organization
of legal authority, of private property, ofslavery, the connections
of the sex-life with the passions of lust, and the strict patriarchal
law of the family, are represented, on the one hand, as humiliating
117 See p. 401.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 261
penalties which remind mankind of the Fall, and, on the other, as
the bonum naturae , the reasonable end of the welfare of all, in the
only possible and beneficial form, as institutions which act as a
discipline for sin . 118
Within all these institutions there is, however, an extraordinarily
strong element of Natural Law; it is this element which gives
them their obligatory character ; it is this element which perpetu-
ally regulates them by continually referring them back to their
necessary standard of reason. That has been the case all the more
since the new revelation of the Natural Law in the Decalogue
threw a fresh light upon the Natural Law, illuminating reason
afresh about its first principles. Thus, in spite of the doctrine of
original sin, there is a very strong impression that all secular,
social institutions are, or may become, rational, and, above all,
that in both, the Divine and the Christian elements in these
institutions can be plainly discerned. Thus through this rational-
izing process they are actually made to agree, as far as possible,
with the main ideas of a Christian patriarchalism; later on, this
point will be expounded in detail.
The acceptance of the idea of the rationality of these institutions,
and confidence in the possibility of making them rational, is much
more pronounced than in the theories of the Early Church, which,
outwardly, sounded very similar. Indeed, in reality those theories
were dealing with social institutions which, owing to their im-
maturity and to their special peculiarities, were much easier to
adapt to the ecclesiastical Ethos than were those of late antiquity.
This closer approximation of the Natural Law to the Christian
ideal was not merely a theoretical process, however, it was direct
and practical; theoretically it expressed itself above all in the
fact that the equation of Natural Law with the Decalogue was
carried out far more logically and systematically. The Decalogue
is held to be directly the logically developed compendium of the
Natural Law, the doctrine of duty towards God and man which
belongs to the Natural Law ; the duty to one’s neighbour, especi-
ally, is developed logically, in the true fashion of a social philo-
sopher, from the family outwards to the universal relationships of
Society.
The binding power of the Decalogue consists in its derivation
from the logical necessity of Natural Law, whereas the other
commandments of the Old Testament which are not founded on
Natural Law are purely positive Divine Law. This rapprochement
between the institutions of Natural Law and Christian morality
118 See p. 402.
262 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
becomes all the more significant when we remember that, through
the catechetical tradition, and, above all, in preparation for
confession, the Decalogue gradually became the formula of the
Christian moral law in general, and that from the theoretical
point of view it was regarded as the germ and the seed of the New
Testament law of morals, repeated and confirmed by Christ, and
made the foundation of His own moral code . 119
So it became possible to regard natural social institutions as
though they had been directly derived from the Christian moral
law, and thus it seemed as though the tension of the Early Church
between the world and that which transcends the world, between
social life and the Church, had been directly overcome. Since
the actual conditions are supposed to have arisen out of the
Natural Law, the Decalogue, and examples from the Old Testa-
ment and from the Ancient World, they dovetail into the Bible
idea of revelation in so far as the conditions of the fallen State do
not cause a painful but irrevocable loss of the ideal. Thus Society
in general and in theory is subordinated to the Christian standard
of life, and reason becomes the complement of revelation. In the
identification of Natural Law with the Decalogue both are recon-
ciled. Without further argument the social philosophy which is
derived from the conjunction of the two is Christian.
In reality, however, this theory does not hold good at every
point. This is prevented, primarily, by the fact that the difference
between the absolute and the ideal Natural Law of the Primitive
State and the relative Natural Law of the fallen State can never
be overlooked, which means that the whole of the present situa-
tion, essentially, falls short of this ideal. The main hindrance,
however, is the fundamental fact that the real Christian moral
law does assume a moral aim, which is quite different from the
aim of Natural Law, that, in reality, it is not merged with the
Decalogue at all, but that, regarding the Decalogue merely as
“germ and seed”, it can only be called Christian in a very mystical
and spiritualized sense, by reference to the real moral law of the
New Testament.
Thomist Doctrine of Nature and Supernature
The decisive element is the peculiarly mediaeval conception of
Christianity as of something supernatural, or, rather, as the full
development of the consequences involved in the idea of the
supernatural. This supernatural element does not consist merely
in the miracle of the God-Man, of the Church and of the Sacra-
119 See p. 403.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 263
merits, in the great miracle of man’s redemption from a world
corrupted by original sin. No longer, as in the Ancient Church,
has it an essentially apologetic significance. The supernatural
now develops as an independent, logical, religious, and ethical
principle. The creature, even the perfect creature, is merely
natural — its laws and aims are only natural. God alone is super-
natural. The essence of Christian supernaturalism, therefore, con-
sists in raising the creature above the limitations of its nature to
God’s own supernature, to participation in the Divine nature.
Natural religion and ethics are the knowledge of God and
obedience to the Law of God. But supernatural religion, the super-
natural aim and the supernatural law — in short, supernature —
means the Vision of God given through grace, as He sees Himself.
This is a pure gift of grace transcending all the barriers of Nature.
The mediation which is necessary here is thus no longer, as in
the Early Church, a mediation between two kinds (respectively
absolute and relative) of the one sole Natural Law, but between
Natural Law and supernature in general. The earlier problem
makes way for the later, and in the last resort all ethics and all
social philosophy in particular are now concerned with the
mediation between nature, perfect or imperfect, and super-
nature. 11 ^
The Decalogue, in reality, is not yet the Christian ethic ; and
the Natural Law, which is regarded as identical with the Deca-
logue, stands precisely as near to and as far from the specifically
Christian ethic, the Nova Lex , as does the Decalogue. It is an
introductory and preparatory stage, and if in it the Natural Law
is deduced from and supported by Scripture, it is none the less
only indirectly Christianized. “Biblical” now means “revealed”,
but for all that it is not directly Christian ; for the Bible, in the
thought of St. Thomas, represents a universal historical process
of development with its varying stages.
The Decalogue is retained in the new Law of Christ as the
preparatory phase for and introduction to Christian morality,
and as an instruction in the exterior application of the new
motives springing from this ethic. The formula for the specifically
* Christian moral law, however, is the Augustinian formula of the
Love of God, as the absolute, the highest, the entirely simple
moral end — an end which contains the claim of the Love of God
119a Denifle; Die katholische Kirche und das Zwl der Menschheit , 1906 ’, is very charac-
teristic on this point, especially with reference to the doctrine of Society,
essentially based upon St. Thomas ; see also Mausbach : Christentum und Welt •
moral, 1905.
264 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
in the stricter sense (through self-sanctification, self-denial, and
contemplation), and the demand of the love of our neighbour
(through the active relating of all to God, the common binding
together of all in God, and the most intimate mutual self-sacrifice
for God). We have thus a love of self in God, which does not love
the natural self but the self united to God ; and a brotherly love in
God, which loves not the natural fellow-man but the brother in
God. These formulas recur again and again in scholasticism.
This real Christian ethic only becomes possible through the
infused energies of sacramental grace ; it has its peculiar expression
in the Ecclesia militans and triumphans, is active in the higher
morality of asceticism and charity, and confers its own reward,
the visio beatified Dei, with which God’s grace crowms in man His
own perfected work of redemption and exaltation.
This ethic is a mystical interpretation of the evangelical message,
and forms an unmistakably strong contrast to the “this-world”
ethic of the Natural Law, of Aristotle, of the Decalogue, and of
natural prosperity ; but this cannot fail to be the case, given the
entire fundamental character of the Christian ethic, and this
was very evident in the life of mediaeval Society in the relation
between Church and State, between laymen, monks, and priests,
and was still operative within the ethical demands made upon
even the simplest layman.
Even although, in a certain sense, the love of God belongs to
Natural Law, and is developed from the Aristotelian emphasis
upon the theoretical virtues, that is still not sufficient for the
expression of the full Christian Ethos ; it only leads towards it, but,
apart from the fact that its light has been dimmed by Original
Sin, it is still not the same as the real and perfect Christian love
of God ; it is only the natural love of God practised in one’s own
strength ; it is not yet the supernatural love of God, which can
only be infused by the sacraments.
Theoretically, again, this finds its best and most characteristic
expression in the doctrine of the Primitive State, which is only
now clearly formulated; this constitutes one of the greatest
progressive achievements of mediaeval thought in comparison
with patristic theology. At this point a fundamental distinction
is made between the “connatural” perfection of man within the
bounds of his reasonable nature, and a perfection which ‘ ‘exceeded’ ’
nature, even in the Primitive State by a pure miracle of grace,
even without priest and sacrament, granted directly by God
Himself. The absolute Natural Law, and the fullest exercise of
practical reason, could only have realized reasonable ends, only a
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 265
bonum naturae , only a natural love of God, only a natural love of
man, and thus only a natural reward. To this merely connatural
Law of Nature there is now added — in the opinion of many,
prepared by it — the supernatural perfection of grace, of a mystical
communion with God, a mystical brotherly love and a supernatural
heavenly reward. The similitudo Dei is added to the mere imago Dei ,
which God did not need to grant to human nature as such, but
which is the pure gift of God’s grace and of c c supernature 5 5 . 120
This similitudo , therefore, forms the main point of interest in the
doctrine of the Primitive State ; the absolute Natural Law which
had controlled this doctrine in the Early Church as well as in
Stoicism, now takes a secondary position. The unhappiness
caused by the Fall, therefore, is not so much the loss of absolute
Natural Law and of the forms of life which correspond to it, as
loss of the mystical miracle of grace, after the loss of which the
knowledge of the mere Natural Law which still exists is useless
for the attainment of supernatural salvation. As a punishment,
indeed, it has become dim, and the sense of guilt renders it un-
certain; therefore reason is no longer able to dominate the
senses, the natural instincts, and the passions of man. Natural
Law now becomes relative, but the difference that this makes,
however painful, is still not the decisive fact; the decisive element
is the loss of that miracle of grace.
The same change emerges just as clearly in the doctrine of
Redemption as in the doctrine of the Primitive State. Through
redeeming grace the original and inherited taint of sin must be
forgiven, and the injury and corruption of the natural energies
of men which this sin has caused must be expiated and
healed. The main point, however, is this : through the sacraments
Redemption further renews that mystical miracle of the grace of
“supernature”, and in the imparted virtues and Habitus (or “the
fixed habit created by grace”)* it again confers that miraculous
morality of supernature which exceeds the limits of Natural Law,
of the natural love of God, and of natural happiness. In the doctrine
of Redemption we are no longer concerned with the effort to do
all that is possible to restore the absolute Natural Law by means
of the Church, but with a mystical blessedness and love, which in
the future life finds fulfilment in union with God, and the unity
of the love of souls in God ; it then has nothing more to do with
Natural Law, which, whether in absolute or in relative form,
still always remains bound to material reality, to the senses, and
to that which is natural and finite,
* Translator. 180 See p. 405.
266 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
The opposition between the world and the Kingdom of
God, which became, quite logically, the settled form of the
early Christian Ethos, was retained, but its outlook had entirely
changed since the period of the Early Church ; and although, in
essence, it may be expressing the ideas of Augustine, yet it presents
its view of this opposition between the world and the Church
quite differently from Augustine. No longer is this opposition held
to consist in the antagonism between an ecclesiastical ethic, which
is identical with the absolute Natural Law of the Stoics, and the
relative Natural Law of the Roman order of Society, in which
the Christian position is partly one of adaptation to the un-
changeable order of Society, and partly one of mastering it, so far
as possible, within the Church.
The opposition is rather one between two stages of purpose,
between mystical supernature and its blessedness in the future
state, on the one hand, and Natural Law in general, on the
other hand ; the difference between the absolute Natural Law of
the Primitive State and the relative Natural Law of the state of
sin has become comparatively unimportant ; both these ideas are
summed up in the term “Nature”, and are therefore opposed to
Supernature.
The end of the intramundane ethic of Natural Law with
the rational purpose of the organization, unity, and welfare of
humanity in all intellectual and material matters, is set over
against the end of the supramundane ethic, of the Christian
moral law, within which everything aims at the s acramentally
effected union with and in the Divine substance of life.
That is why the Decalogue stands for the substance of the
Natural Law, and, as the revelation to a particular people, it must
submit to the law of Christianity and be baptized into Christianity
in order to gain a Christian significance.
The rather more ethical and practical Stoic-Christian idea of
the free personality in God, and of the humanitarian idea of a
unity of mankind, free from law and force, united by ties of a
common humanity and mutual service, has been replaced by the
combination of the sacramental idea of miracle with Neo-Platonic
and Christian mysticism.
The opposition which has to be overcome is no longer primarily
that of a particular society, at enmity wjthin itself, based on law,
force, and selfishness, against the universal Kingdom of Love of
the children of God; it is now the opposition between Nature,
working out its Law of Reason, and the peculiarly Christian
purpose of the sacramental and mystical miracle of Grace,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 267
between the natural Christian social system, of life in the world,
which arises out of the former, and the fellowship of mystical love
and happiness which results from the latter. The task of reconcilia-
tion is now a double one : to reconcile not only absolute and rela-
tive Natural Law, but, above all, nature and supernature.
The new formulation of the contrast is more comprehensive
and more theoretical. Thus it makes a new solution possible,
based more fully on a definite theory, which, while it recognizes
the value of the life of the world, at the same time distinctly
defines the limits of its claim. That, indeed, became inevitable with
the idea of a unified civilization, and on its side it also served as
a basis for this idea.
In this development, therefore, we perceive the really new
element in the mediaeval theory, and it was only natural that this
new element should give Christian ethics an impetus in a new
direction. We must remember, however, that if this impetus
caused a greater recognition of the life of the world, this was
not due merely to a logical development in theory, but It was
effected by the actual relative Christianization of the life of the
world.
Aristotelianism, with the help of which this further development
took place, was explicitly rejected by the University of Paris, and
then by the Popes, in exactly the same way as Modernism is
rejected to-day. That it was finally accepted was due to the fact
that its acceptance solved problems of practical life and of
theoretical thought, while it remained subordinate to the
supreme religious fundamental idea.
The difficulty was surmounted no longer by the mere accept-
ance of secular institutions as expressions of relative Natural Law
—in which case, indeed, the ethic of the Church, which was identi-
fied with absolute Natural Law, could not have found any real
inward relationship with these institutions — rather, the difficulty
was overcome by the conception of a system of degrees. As the
main contradiction consisted in the difference between nature
and grace, the opposition was removed by the acceptance of
a relationship of degrees, which, in the development of reason
leads upwards from Nature, or from the Law of Nature, to Grace.
The Aristotelian idea of development which permeates the whole
of this system — the idea* that is, which regards potentialities as
being shaped by the directive power of reason — is applied also to
this relationship.
The development of the instinctive reason, or of Natural Law,
created the preparatory stage, to which the miraculous grace of
268 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
mystical morality could be added, even in the Primitive State.
In precisely the same way, in the fallen State, also (under the
influence of relative Natural Law and the relative insight of
reason), the instinctive reason created the dispositions and the
preparatory stages, upon which the superstructure of the ethic of
grace could be erected, together with the necessary apparatus
of penance and absolution for the healing of the corruption of
nature by sin.
Absolute and relative Natural Law are both ultimately sub-
ordinate to the miracle of grace, for which they serve both as a
basis and as a preparatory stage. The difference between the two
is relatively insignificant compared with that which exists between
nature and grace in general. Absolute and relative Natural Law
approximate very closely to each other as an expression of reason
which corresponds to varying situations, and in so doing they
consecrate the natural social groupings as the expression of the
Divine Reason.
Reason itself, however, is also subordinate to Grace, as the
preparatory condition and temper which enables man to receive
it. At this point the Aristotelian idea of evolution merges into
the Neo-Platonic idea of the ascent of the soul from the political
virtues to those which are contemplative and theoretical, and from
these to the mystical Vision of God ; the latter process, however, is
only possible through the miracle of the ethic of Grace.
Thus the substructure of reason, composed of natural, social,
and ethical elements, becames an integral part of the whole; it is
justified as the expression of the same Divine Reason which is
revealed in the Decalogue, yet at the same time, as mere reason,
it is subordinated to the sacramental, ecclesiastical, miraculous
realm with its higher morality.
The morality of reason and the natural-social w'orld is the
preparation for grace, with which it is united through the common
procession of both from God, through the Divinely ordered con-
tinuous ascent from reason and nature to Grace ; in this process,
however, the corruption of reason and of the natural-social
system in the fallen State does not go so far as to obliterate the
element of reason altogether ; it leaves, indeed, sufficient strength
to order, dispose, and prepare the hearts of men for the reception
of Grace. ,
Along these lines, then, the social order is rationalized and
Christianized — while at the same time, as a means and a pre-
supposition, it is incorporated into the higher absolute aims of
mystical morality. The early equation provided by Stoicism is
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 269
maintained by treating and handling the social organism as the
product of the Divine Reason, which is identified with the
Decalogue. The new equation, however, rises higher and is more
far-reaching in its scope, since it regards the social structure itself
as a lower degree of the ethic of grace. To the early equation
provided by Stoicism is now added that which has been evolved
with the aid of Neo-Platonism, and the transition from the first
to the second is effected with the help of the Aristotelian teaching
of an ascending series of ends, of a continual building up upon
the degree which has already been attained, which then becomes
the “potentiality” for a new “actuality”. The ethic and order of
reason, which corresponds to the Decalogue and to the Natural
Law, is the “potentiality” through which the “act” of grace and
the “Habitus”* of the supernatural virtues created by it is alone
rightly formed and directed. Catholic civilization is based on the
relative Natural Law of the fallen State moulded by the ethic of
grace. Thus this ethic, so long as it speaks of the instinctive reason
and the social order created by Natural Law, can bear a character
which emphasizes as far as possible public spirit, love, and
freedom; nevertheless, at the same time it is entirely rational
and intra-mundane, and, entirely in the manner of Aristotle
and the Arabian philosophers, it makes spiritual and physical
happiness the object of morality, and its central point of organiza-
tion; then, however, this whole ethic of Natural Law is incor-
porated into an organism which imposes upon it the realization of
the absolute religious end, as a means and an assumption — which
are only justified if everywhere they are used with reference to the
service of the absolute end.
The Early Church utilized the ethical, social, and philosophical
universal ideas of the Stoics, and over against them it placed the
miraculous community of the Church as the restoration of the
completed ethic of reason, although still broken by sin. The
Thomist ethic utilizes the ethical, social, and philosophical con-
ceptions of Aristotle and of Neo- Platonism ; it confronts the Aristo-
telian philosophy, however, with a combination of ecclesiastical
supernaturalism and Neo-Platonism, in which the Church
appears, in principle, as a sphere which transcends reason, a
mystical sphere conferred by the Divine interposition of grace.
Inconsistencies within 1*he Thomist Ethic
Although this structure may appear very comprehensive, and
although it is a great advance on the doctrines of the Early
* The fixed habit created by grace — Translator.
270 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Church, to a great extent the inconsistencies of the Early Church
have still been retained. They are, however, maintained at a deeper
level. This fact ought always to be kept in mind, in order to
combat the tendency to assign a higher Christian value to this
civilization than it actually possessed. Directly, its Christian
character was influenced only by the dominion of the ethic of
grace and of the organism of grace, but the dominated material
of the life of the world was nowhere directly Christianized. The
real method of Christianizing the life of the world in general was
the belief in the Divinity and Scriptural character of the Natural
Law, possessing its own logic, and this influence was still to some
extent indirect. Until the present day, therefore, the fundamental
basis of the Catholic ethic still remains formally, alongside of the
ecclesiastical theocracy, the principle of the scripturally acknow-
ledged rational Natural Law, whose content is a conception of
the Natural Law which is in harmony with the patriarchalism of
the Old Testament and the conservatism of Aristotle; it thus
regards the social reality of the Middle Ages, in its main features,
as the expression of reason.
The true Christian ethic, on the other hand, moves on the
plane of the sacramental ethic of grace, and intervenes on the
natural plane only through the all-embracing theocracy of the
Church. Therefore the actual rules for life in the world still do
not issue directly from the Christian Ethos, but from the Natural
Law, from Aristotle, the Decalogue, and the Old Testament.
Here, too, there is still no direct idea of Christian social reform
or social transformation ; all that it amounts to is this : that the
Natural Law, and the Old Testament conceptions of law, have
been subordinated to Christian ideas, and that they naturally
regulate the secular social institutions in an indirectly Christian
sense, by exposing them to the influence of the Christian ethic.
The opposition has been diminished, but it has not been destroyed.
The Christian unity of civilization owes its unity not directly to
Christian ideas, but to the ideas of the Natural Law, of Aristotle,
and of the Old Testament, dominated and appropriated by
Christian thought, in which in theory the Natural Law approxi-
mates very closely to Christian thought, and in practice sets its
own stamp upon an order of Society which is receptive towards
Christian thought. Within this social order, however, the Christian
standard of life still occupies a very uncertain and precarious
position. For that which distinguishes the natural order from the
Christian order, and which makes it merely a preparatory stage,
is the fact that — in addition to the natural power of action and
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 271
the “natural”, “this-world” relation to spiritual and social ends —
the Natural Law of fallen humanity is dominated by that funda-
mental quality in man which entered in with sin, that Superbia
which refuses to accept situations and circumstances, which will
not submit to God or to Law; Superbia is the source of all conflict,
and of all the institutions of law and property which attempt to
suppress conflict.
Alongside of the Neo-Platonic distinction between the secular
plane and the plane of mystical religion and ethics, there remains,
therefore, the ancient contrast between the struggle for existence
and its institutions, and the Christian ethic of love and freedom.
The contrast has been retained, but it has been forced into the
background by the more important question of the relation
between Nature and Supernature, and in so far as it is immanent
within that nature in its present state it is at the same time
subordinated to the process of the gradual ascent from the natural
to the supernatural. To this extent it has changed from simul-
taneity into succession . 121
It cannot be denied, however, that this introduction of the
ideas of a successive process and a progressive ascent — which
means the acceptance of Aristotle and its organic connection
with Neo-Platonism — is a matter of extraordinary importance for
the whole Christian ethic. It makes it possible, on the one hand,
to keep a firm hold on the radical religious ethic as the goal to
aim at, since it is transformed into mysticism, and, on the other
hand, to draw into the Christian ethic all other ethical values,
in so far as they entered into the ken of the Middle Ages, that is,
the whole natural basis of life, as a lower degree and preparatory
stage.
Thus the radical principles of the true Christian ethic to a very
large extent became relative ; in the idea of a development leading
upwards from the natural values of reason to the specific values of
ethics and of religion, the radical Christian standpoint itself,
however, was preserved. This is a relativism without which a
Christian unity of civilization would be impossible ; and, in so far
as a universal world-dominating Church Is not possible without a
unity of civilization, a relativism of this kind belongs to the nature
of the Church itself. As a power which dominates the civilized
world, the Church must make room for the natural basis and for
the ethical values of this World ; this she does by allowing a rela-
tive value to these things, and only then leading up from these
relative values to those which are absolute. Since, however, the
121 See p. 406.
272 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
absolute ideals are united with the recognition of the relative
ideals which lead up to them, they themselves finally become
relative too, and are thus robbed of their exclusiveness. They
enter into various combinations with secular ideals, and in so
doing they themselves become secularized in theory; they are
drawn into the stream of becoming, and changed into mere
approximate values to the Absolute. The pure realization of the
Absolute has to be entrusted to a particular class — that of the
ascetics — who actualize it vicariously for the rest, and maintain
its power and influence, so that from this ascetic class the primitive
Christian energy once more radiates fresh vitality into all merely
relative approximations to the Christian standard.
The Absolute is preserved only in the conception of the actual
ultimate ideal, and in the presence of the ecclesiastical institution
of grace itself, which, as the objective incarnation of supernatural
miraculous powers, at all times ensures their presence and their
influence, apart from the measure of subjective realization of the
supernatural ideal in individual believers. The Church signifies
the permanent presence of the Absolute, and therefore dispenses
individuals from the need to realize it subjectively; an approxi-
mate standard is sufficient for them, which the purification of
Purgatory will complete.
Morality thus becomes complicated and relative, a teleological
evolutionary morality, which is a hierarchy of ends, all of which
harmonize with each other. But, since the Church herself repre-
sents the Absolute, she also produces ethical uniformity, since by
her own authority she determines the different degrees of good
and evil in men’s actions, and by her system of casuistry she re-
lieves the individual of the responsibility for unifying this compli-
cated Ethos. Thus, indirectly, this morality which was in itself
free and teleological, became legal and authoritative through the
interpretation of the Church ; it was at this point, therefore, that
the whole popular heteronomy of belief in the acquisition of merit
was able to work its way into the thought of the Church, but in
the real fundamental ideas of St. Thomas this belief has no place
at all. From this point of view the casuistry and legalism of the
Catholic ethic is the result of its complicated character, in which
uniformity can only be maintained by authoritative pronounce-
ments. The Church is, however, empowered to do this as the
possessor of absolute energies, aims, and Truths. She, and she only,
is the incarnation of the Absolute and of unity. 1 21a
121a See p, 407,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
273
Thomist Idea of Development
The reconciliation which has now been attained is relative in
character. This relativism, however, has been attained without
the loss of the absolute aim, by means of the idea of a spiritual
and ethical development. Out of the contradictory dual morality
of the Early Church there has arisen a unified moral develop-
ment. It looks as though the compromise which has been attained
were closely akin to the modern idea of evolution. But this assump-
tion is unwarranted ; the supposed “evolution” is not an actual
real development ; it is not a whole, working itself out continuously
from an inward sense of necessity, which as a whole, with its
stages of actualization and its aim, is deeply rooted in the hidden
Divine source of life. This evolution is simply an architectonic
classified system of ends, in which every time a new phase begins
the process is initiated by a special Divine act of creation, and the
continuity in connection with the preceding stage is only an
external preparation and reconciliation, which the Divine Archi-
tect of the world has ordained, in order that one phase may be
connected with another without too great a hiatus.
Thus in the ascending system of Ends of Reality in general
each new phase is based, properly speaking, upon a natural,
miraculous intervention of God ; above all, the highest phase of
the ecclesiastical-sacramental ethic of grace, which finally links
mankind together, is based upon a supernatural, unique miracle,
proceeding purely from the gift of grace, a miracle which has
nothing to do with the being and conception of man and of the
world. In this sense, very finely and thoughtfully, St. Thomas, in
opposition to Averroistic monism, has maintained the uniqueness
of the particular stages of Reality, the uniqueness and the indi-
vidual particular existence of the human spirit, and the possibility
of a continued development of the spirit beyond the border-line
of death. Following out this train of thought, however, he also
affirmed the whole mystical supernatural ethic of grace, and
made it the foundation of the realization of the absolute goal
of life.
To him, the mystical “end” of life does not lie in the being
and conception of man as in Neo-Platonism, but he only arrives
at the being and conception which develops itself naturally, by
means of an arbitrary ihiracle of grace. The transitions between
these inwardly disconnected phases are carefully, but quite
externally, reconciled, since the highest point of the preceding
phase is always advanced as close as possible to the beginning of
vol. 1. s
274 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the next phase, and the leap from the one to the other is made
as small as possible. 1211 " It is particularly difficult to do this in
connection with the stage of natural disposition and preparation
for the phase of miracle or grace ; here the emphasis shifts con-
tinually from one extreme to the other, from the idea of kinship
to the idea of contrast. It is at this point that there arise all the
intricate discussions about freedom and the power of grace, sin
and the ethic of grace, into which it is not necessary to enter here
in any further detail.
Since the distance between each stage has been decreased, the
intellectual need for unity and for continuity of thought is satisfied ;
above all, however, that particular need is satisfied with which
we are concerned in this inquiry, the need to incorporate and
approximate the life of Society within the world to the ultimate
values and principles of the living sociological organism of the
religious life. Since the sociological organism of the religious life
itself becomes the Papal Theocracy, which, directly or indirectly,
becomes the all-inclusive determining sociological fundamental
form of human existence, covering the whole of life, the life of the
world is woven into this whole along two lines ; first of all, it is
reduced to an emphasis on the Stoic-Christian idea of a freedom
of outlook and a human community of love, which blends, very
ingeniously, both Conservatism and Radicalism into the whole
conception of Natural Law; then, finally (and chiefly) this Natural
Law, as it develops, points beyond itself to an absolute super-
natural aim of life, which is introduced with the mystical-sacra-
mental miraculous grace of the Church, in which alone are brought
to fruition both the natural love of God and the natural love of
humanity . 123
These are the fundamental ideas upon which the ethic of
Thomism is based ; from this point of view it becomes possible,
even dialectically, to justify the indispensable estimate of a right
valuation of secular society, viewed in relation to a unity of
civilization. The aspect of the question which belongs to the
history of Doctrine — that is, the question of how, in detail, this
doctrine was formed, by influences from French ecclesiastical
philosophy, from Jewish and Arabian philosophy, from Aristotle
and from the Fathers — need not be discussed here. The decisive
point to note, however, is this: that St. Thomas, in welding
together all these influences into a coherent system, was one of
the greatest thinkers In Catholicism, but also that, with his
strictly papal ideas, he succeeded in connecting very closely this
mb g ee 122 g ee p p
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 275
ethic and this idea of culture with the Universal united Church
and the Supremacy of the Pope. It is obvious that the connection
is thoroughly logical. The ingenious system of an ethic which is
based entirely upon a plane of miraculous energies and revela-
tion can only be held together by a central miracle of authority
and Divine objectivity. It is also clear that an authority of this
kind must be constituted in strict legal form, with the ability to
formulate the Divine authority quite clearly, so that it has the
right as well as the necessity to subdue the world by force to this
possession of truth, and to this knowledge of the aim of life, in
so far, that is, as it does not submit voluntarily to this central
authority. Voluntary submission is, however, to be expected, as
a rule, in view of the progressive and ascending character of the
Natural Law.
Like the whole of scholasticism this way of thinking is essen-
tially architectonic ; the unity is ascribed to the wisdom of the
Divine Architect of the world, who thus orders it according to
His Will; all that is left to human thought is reverence for the
great creative and miraculous intervention of God, and the
thoughtful recognition of the reconciliations which God has
introduced. Its rational tendency lies in the idea of continuity ;
its irrational tendency lies in the idea of continual interventions
of God, each one leading to a further stage of development, in
the institution of grace and of the Church and, finally, in that
of predestination. Both rational and irrational tendencies are
reconciled solely by means of an architectonic and rhythmical
picture of the graded system on which the w r orld is built. Thus
the ascent of humanity and the ascent of the individual soul
towards the Absolute End are constructed on architectonic lines.
The idea of Society, which is the result of the realization of the
highest end, is also architectonic in its conception, since in it,
not only does the individual pass through the particular phases,
but Society also ascends from one plane to another through its
graded social organization: from serfs to freemen and nobles
and burghers, and thence to monks and priests, right up to the
supreme positions in Church and State. This last point is very
closely connected with the exclusively architectonic way of
thinking, and must still be specially emphasized.
The graded social system and the scholastic habit of thought
correspond to and condition each other. In both cases the indi-
vidual parts are not independently related to the altruistic values
and principles ; they are related to them only through the medium
of a whole, in which externally they are bound together in an
276 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
architectonic system, and in which they share only in a very
external modified quantitative manner. The purely architectonic
unity of Society and culture is still further expressed in the fact
that the stages of development of the individual, as of humanity,
not only in length cohere merely externally, but that also in
breadth the individual groups possess only an acquiescent, in-
different, purely external, modified relation with the meaning of
the whole ; that the whole alone realizes the idea of the Divine
life-organism; that, however, particular classes and individuals
have a very unequal share in the real ideal and the ultimate end,
as indeed even the bliss of Heaven has its various phases and
degrees. Transitions effected by means of miraculous intervention
and purely quantitative relations with the ideal are made to
square at all points with the idea of the harmony of the world,
just as the social variety harmonizes with the unity of Society.
There is no uniform moral ideal, which would imply the same
formal goal for the training of each individual. There is, rather,
a distribution of parts, classes, and services in an architectonic
whole, which mutually complete and support each other, whose
inner unity lies in the ecclesiastical authority, which relates the
whole to the Divine Will, executes this Will, distributes the
various parts, and assumes responsibility for the whole.
“The ordered variety of the ecclesiastical hierarchy is meant to
repeat upon a higher plane, in the realm of grace, the harmonious
variety of the natural order and of the order of the State. The
variety of offices within the social organism, which in this respect
is similar to the particular human organism, is a conditional
necessity, and opens the way to the greatest possible number to
take an active share in the public life of the Church. The grada-
tion of the offices and duties belongs to the proper administration
of the whole, and serves to adorn and beautify the Church . 5 ’ 123
In other directions also the system contains obvious difficulties
and obscurities, due to an artificial method of disconnecting and
linking up ideas : the distinction between the natural and super-
natural Love of God, the transformation of Neo-Platonic mysti-
cism, which by an inward logic proceeds from the Spirit, into a
radical miracle of the Church, is the one ; while the uncertain view
of Natural Law — now in an Aristotelian light, as a triumphant
development of reason, and now in an r ecclesiastical light, as
an institution entirely corrupted by Original Sin — is the other.
To that we must add the uncertainties of the “Doctrine of Per-
fection 55 , which in itself ought to prescribe to every individual
123 See p. 407.
Mediaeval Catholicism 277
the goal of the mystical ethic of grace, but which, owing to the
fact that the average man finds it actually impossible to achieve
this, only maintains an approximate standard, and ascribes the
full ethic of grace to a special class, namely, monasticism, which
can practise it vicariously, with the help of specially favourable
means — or at least it suggests that this ideal can be more easily
attained in the monastic state.
Taken as a whole, however, this system is undoubtedly a
splendid and brilliant attempt to unite the different motives which
go to make up human society : the social aims of this earthly life,
and those which are religious, mystical, and universal. In his
endeavour to preserve the independence of these various spheres
of life, and also in his desire to maintain, in the ascent of the life-
movement, the inner differences of the stages, while at the same
time holding fast to an ultimate religious end, St. Thomas prob-
ably comes much nearer to the truth of life than the biological
naturalistic constructions of modern sociology, with their col-
lectivism, which represses the individual, and with their relativism,
which finally tends to Monism.
At any rate, until the present day Thomism is the great funda-
mental from of Catholic social philosophy. The inconsistencies
which it contains belong to life itself, and they are bound to
emerge again and again, since alongside of the ordinary secular
institutions an idea has arisen, an idea which will certainly never
be allowed to die out, a universal, ethical, and religious idea,
the idea, namely, of personality united with God, and of human
society united with God, and this idea is struggling to create a
society which will accord with its point of view, and it must aspire
to carry out those ideas into the life of the whole, far beyond the
circle of the particular religious community.
The mediaeval theory has certainly thought out the whole
problem of the inconsistencies with keen insight, and just as
plainly it has approximated to its own ideal.
If the Christian ethical ideal is to be maintained at all as the
supreme aim, and is to be brought to universal recognition, it
will have to incorporate within itself the natural forms of life,
and the ethical ideals of this life, and this will never be possible
otherwise than by means of the idea of an ascending development,
which ascends from the values of the life of this world to those
of the transcendent realm. 1 23a
The particular way in which St. Thomas built up this system
123a Cf. my treatise, Grundprobleme der Ethik, Z*f* Theol. und Kirche , 1902; also
the brilliant study of the Ethos of Dante by Vossler : Dante , /, pp. 558-569.
278 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of thought was, however, dependent upon the character of the
life and particular ideas of that period, in which the Idea of God
was irrational and based on Will, and the different institutions
and interventions were united with the logical and ethical need
for unity only through an anthropomorphic architectonic world-
plan, and by a purely architectonic method of connecting one
stage with the next. It is not surprising that the criticism of the
Scotists, and then, above all, of the Occamists, which followed
the development of Thomism, distilled from it a pure indetermin-
ism and a purely arbitrary conception of God, but it is equally
clear that later on Catholicism reverted from this criticism
to the Thomistic doctrine, with its ideas of continuity and
transition.
The so-called Nominalist theology of the later Middle Ages
undoubtedly rendered a real service by its penetrating criticism
of this system of reconciliation, and by overthrowing this system
it is manifest that the secular realm of life was allowed more scope ;
also a self-propagation of religious thought became possible which
was freer and less restricted by intellectual considerations. From
this point of view the theology of the Reformers developed out
of the destruction of Thomism and the reinstatement of the
absolute antithesis. In its place, however, they then had to strike
out on a new line for the establishment of the ethics of the social
order and of civilization. For Catholicism, on the contrary, this
Nominalism only meant the destruction of the idea of compromise
necessary to its idea of civilization without creating a new one.
Nominalism resulted not merely in the destruction of dogma,
but also, above all, in that of social ethics ; while the stressing of
the opposition between Reason and Revelation created a yawning
gulf between Church and State.
Significance of Thomism for
Catholic Social Philosophy
The further development, also, through Humanism, of those
elements of antiquity which Scholasticism already contained, as
in the case of a Nicholas da Cusa and a Thomas More, went
farther and farther beyond the Catholic idea of a nature and
civilization dominated and directed by grace, so that it became
necessary for the Church to re-emphasize, in opposition to
Humanism, all those elements in Thomism which helped to keep
the balance true. 123b This is why the Catholicism of the Counter-
123b See p. 408.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 279
Reformation, in its work of reorganization, had to revert to the
Thomist system of reconciliation and the Thomist ethic. In so
doing, however, it also had to revert as far as possible to the
Thomist presuppositions, which, at least in the shape of claims,
were already present in the actual situation. This is why Catholi-
cism always desires a renewal, at least in its main features, of the
general political and social situation upon which it had erected
its structure in the Middle Ages, and this is why it maintains,
do\vn to the present day, the philosophical and theological
method of its architectonic logic. Modern Catholic social philo-
sophy is still based upon both these premises, although to some
extent it has modified and modernized the former. Down to the
present day there corresponds to the metaphysic of the natural
and supernatural graded structure of the universe a graded
picture of Society, rank upon rank, and a quantitative graded
morality of the particular classes in their relation to the absolute
ideal ; there corresponds to the task of an agreement and unifica-
tion of these various ethical motives the demand for an authority
which will control the whole, which will erect dogmatic and
ethical propositions which will be clear and absolutely binding,
removing from the individual the burden of making this adjust-
ment, and dominating the common life in an authoritative
manner.
Wherever Catholicism accepts the social doctrine of modem
rationalism and individualism, and adopts the idea that all
movement and vital unity is spontaneously generated from
within, without any external authoritative law, and therefore
without any power of compulsion, it there departs from its own
traditional spirit, and the inevitable result must follow, in the
shape of destructive reactions upon its metaphysic and its ethic.
That was proved very clearly during the period of the En-
lightenment, when Catholic theology had accepted the new
metaphysic of personality, as the result of the ethic and the social
philosophy of Kant ; when, however, the Catholic ideal of Society
rebelled against this, the general metaphysical theories also were
rejected.
To-day it is the significance of so-called “Americanism 55 and
Modernism once again to prove in a striking way this close mutual
connection; it will scarcely succeed by the adoption of the very
varied modern ideas on natural philosophy, the philosophy of
history, social philosophy, and metaphysics, where Thomism suc-
ceeded by the method of a simple and exclusive Aristotelianism.
The basis of modern life also, with its infinitely complicated
2 Bo THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
practical conditions, is less able to adapt itself to a new extension
of the Catholic Ethos of this kind than the social situation which
existed in the time of St. Thomas was able to do. 123c So far as one
can see, Thomism will invariably conquer until it dies in the act
of victory.
8. MEDIAEVAL SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY ACCORDING TO THE
PRINCIPLES OF THOMISM
A fundamental idea which includes and integrates the whole
of life had been discovered in this theoretical and ethical permea-
tion of the ecclesiastical unity of civilization. The graduated
structure of a realm of ends rising from plane to plane — from the
sphere of the senses and of animal impulse to the plane of intel-
lectual and social purpose, and thence again to the sphere of
religious and supernatural ends; which embraces the sphere of
Nature and the sphere of Grace, the social organizations outside
the technically religious sphere, and the grace-imparting institu-
tion of the Church, the Primitive State, fallen humanity, and the
future life; which embraces all this in the conception of the
Corpus Christianum , or in the extended idea of the Church which
takes in the preparations for it in Nature: this constitutes the
fundamental idea and the plastic imaginative point of view,
closely connected with metaphysics and a philosophy of history
in which the differences and inconsistencies of life merge into a
unity.
Uniformity of the
Fundamental Sociological Theory
With this uniformity of the idea of civilization, however, there
now arose also the uniformity of the fundamental sociological
idea, of the fundamental sociological theory, which expresses as
a universal and theoretical ideal the common relationship of
human beings to one another in the attainment of the absolute
final end, and in the practical exercise of the intermediate ends
which lead to this ideal.
Only now did men feel the need, and discern the possibility, of
formulating the sociological fundamental idea of the ideal of the
Ghristian Church as the centre and the^norm of every possible
valid kind of sociological structure, and also the need and possi-
bility of constructing these social groups from this centre. What-
123c See p. 408.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 281
ever cannot be logically constructed in this way is attributed to
the influence of sinful corruption and hostility to the norm. But
Providence, which works through the Law of Nature and its
relation to the Kingdom of Grace, sees to it that on the whole all
sociological formations issue in this direction, and also that all
that denies this ideal, all the institutions which are tyrannical,
oppressive, and enslaving, can be transformed into means whereby
the good is encouraged and sin is restrained . 124
Against those real disturbances and corruptions, however,
which are produced by pure selfishness and unbridled passion, it
suffices to use the sermon and the exercise of discipline, and to
maintain the purity of the Faith and the power of the Church,
whereby these particular disturbances naturally become at
least exceptional, incidental events, which can be overcome,
or otherwise must be endured, in humility, as the penalty
for sin . 125
The Primitive Church had no uniform social philosophy.
From her point of view the social structure of the Church, and
the social structure outside the Church, were separated by a
wide gulf.
With the aid of the Stoics she learnt, it is true, to derive the
secular social institutions from a central idea, the Lex naturae ,
and to this extent she recognized them to be appointed by God.
Essentially, however, the Early Church still saw in them only the
distorted form of the social order, clouded by sin, which through
violence, law, capital punishment, war, private property, and
trade contradicted the real idea, and which had accepted these
features partly as a penalty and partly as a discipline for sin:
at the same time she considered that the original ideal was largely
obscured by paganism and human selfishness.
So far as the sociological ideal within the Church was con-
cerned the situation was quite different; the following factors
predominated within it : the authority of the priesthood, and the
redemptive power of the sacraments, sanctification, self-denial,
submission to the Church, and a love which knows no law and
no avarice.
Thus both sides of life remained separate, and the theoretical
identification of the Lex naturae with the Law of Moses only
referred to the unity of the absolute Natural Law of the Primitive
State with the Jewish-Christian Law, and served merely as a
general method of pacifying men’s consciences about the validity
of the social formations outside the Church ; this theory, however,
124 Seep. 409. 125 Seep. 411.
282 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
made it no easier to accept these institutions in their present
concrete form, save only through patience, and a rather despairing
submission to the course of this sinful world. That is why the two
elements never agreed in a practical unity. That is also the reason
why it was theoretically impossible to understand and control
this structure from the standpoint of the sociological funda-
mentalism of the Christian Faith. In this respect Augustine’s
fluctuations are especially characteristic; on the one hand, he
formulated the idea of the ascending series of ends, and the use
of the earthly for the purpose of the heavenly ; but, on the other
hand again, in his doctrines of sin and predestination, he radically
rejected and condemned the natural life of Society as it actually
was, without, however, on that account in any way requiring a
new and suitable intellectual theory of Society. Thus a uniform
Christian social philosophy was impossible, a social philosophy
which was divided between the Church and the Lex naturae did
not agree with the claim of the Christian idea, to comprehend all
from the standpoint of its absolute values, and to reject that which
cannot be so understood ; here, therefore, the inconsistency was
complete.
The doctrine of the later Middle Ages, and especially that of
Thomism, on the contrary, was able to construct a uniform social
philosophy because it started from the idea of the actuality and
necessity of a Christian unity of civilization. The preceding pages
have shown how it was that Thomism was able to assume this
unity of civilization as something natural and practical, and also
how it was able to build up the theory on which it was based out
of the conception of the hierarchy of ends. The vital factor in this
doctrine is the new conception of the Law of Nature, in which the
difference between the absolute Primitive State and the relative
state of fallen human nature becomes less important, and in
which the more positive emphasis is laid on aspects of healing and
progress towards a higher ideal, than on the negative aspects of
destruction and punishment. Whether the Fall had taken place
or not, human beings would still have created social institutions,
only this process would have been carried out in the spirit of love
and voluntary submission and control, without the resistance of
the senses to reason, and therefore without pain and without
suffering. But, apart from the fact that r their basic ideas would
have been different, in reality the institutions which they created
would still have appeared very similar to those which had actually
come into being. The Law of Nature, therefore, is no longer
identical with the Christian Law of Grace and the Golden
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 283
Age of the Stoics; it is only the natural preparation for, and
preparatory form of, the mystical community of grace, which
is understood in the sense of the Aristotelian doctrine of
evolution, as the working out of the impulse of reason in natural
terms . 126
Naturally, therefore, it has deficiencies and limitations and
externalities which must not be allowed to become stumbling-
blocks, and, therefore, even in its clouded and relative form the
Law of Nature can be related to the ethic of grace and to the
Church. In its essence it is related to material welfare, and only
to God as the principle of order and harmony which can be
naturally discerned. It therefore needs education and discipline,
law and regulations, the human application and development of
principles . 127 The Kingdom of Nature becomes the portal of the
Kingdom of Grace . 128
At this point, however, there emerges a supreme interconnec-
tion of ends, which is common to both, and together with this a
sociological fundamental theory which also is common to both,
only modified in both spheres. From this fundamental theory a
uniform social philosophy can and must proceed, which no
longer assumes a different basis for the Church and for the
world, but which deduces all the imaginable and possible social
formations from one axiomatic basic ideal, and which applies the
theory upon which the Church is based also in a graduated
manner to the social structure which lies outside the Church.
Only thus can one speak of a uniform Christian social doctrine,
which also derives, estimates, and shapes the social institutions
which lie outside the ecclesiastical sphere, from the sociological
ideal which lies at the heart of the Church itself Only thus does
one attain that enthusiastic glow of feeling, based on the convic-
tion that the Church alone holds in her hands the key of all
social knowledge and the means of healing all social distress — as
the modern Thomists, in face of the social crises and confusion of
the present day, always triumphantly proclaim. But, even so, it is
clear that this saving social doctrine of Christianity is a very
complicated historical product, and that it is very far from being
the simple and easy result of fundamental Christian ideas. A
universal £C Christian social philosophy 55 only became possible after
the Ancient World had contributed largely from its own scientific
store of ideas, and after actual historical developments had taken
place which were of the utmost significance for Society at
large . 129
126 See p. 41 1. 127 See p. 412. 128 See p. 412. 129 See p. 413.
284 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Social Theory of Thomism:
Patriarchal and Organic Idea
In the foregoing pages it has been made clear that this socio-
logical theory was composed of a complicated mass of ideas
borrowed from various directions, and also of actual historical
facts by which it was conditioned. The question now Is to discover
the meaning and the content of this Christian fundamental
sociological theory, so far as it has been formulated, with all that
it ijnplies. Sociologically considered, what is the fundamental
ideal of the Christian social doctrines, which, starting from the
Church as its basis, then assists the social institutions outside the
Church to come to their own full term of development, and in so
doing sets the tone of the whole of the social life of mankind in
accordance with certain standards and certain fundamental
sentiments? What is the spirit of Catholic Christian sociological
thought in general? What is it which makes it sure that even at
the present day, and particularly at the present day, it possesses
a universal remedy for all social ills ? 130 In the endeavour to
answer this question, in point of fact, we shall trace the emergence
of essentially Christian ideas, but we shall see that this process was
dependent on the appropriation of many ideas from the idealistic
speculations of the Ancient World, and from many other sources.
The Gospel had developed a sociological fundamental theory
which one may describe as radical religious individualism, and the
religious universalism of love. That, however, did not directly
produce either a religious organization of its own, or a standard
for the social institutions outside the directly religious sphere.
Jesus applied this ideal in particular cases ; everything else in the
general course of events He committed to His Heavenly Father,
who would realize the ideal in a universal way through the
coming of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel was not at all con-
cerned with the question of “how” this was to happen. It was
only out of the worship of the Risen Lord that a new religious
community arose, which summed up both the individualism and
the universalism of Jesus, in the idea of a community for worship;
and in this community secured to each individual religious
equality, and the most intimate union with the other members
of the Body. *
Since, however, this community developed within itself great
differences in dogma, priesthood, and sacrament, it was only
able to gather up the whole in the idea of a united organism,
130 See p. 414.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 285
within which each member has its honour and its purpose, and
in which also each member must accept the function appointed
to it for the welfare of the whole. Paul had already coined the
famous and enduring formula which effectively expresses this
idea — the essential being of this community for worship is an
organism which includes various stages or functions, an organism
in which all the members, united by a strong sense of solidarity,
share in the purpose and meaning of the whole. Within such an
organism many elements find expression : the value of the indi-
vidual, the obligation towards a super-individual whole ; various
stages and functions and inner organizations are incorporated
into the idea of the whole. On the other hand, the community
itself is affected by the various differentiations and hindrances as
well as advantages which result from the connection with social
institutions outside the Church, and from natural differences.
From the outset the Christian social idea applied to these
differences the conception of the Patriarchalism of love; it
enjoined the voluntary acceptance of, and submission to, these
differences, which were to be utilized by some as an opportunity
for the exercise of charity and devotion towards their less fortunate
brethren, and by others as occasions for displaying the virtues of
trust, patience, and humility to those above them ; by this means
the voluntary relationships of submission and authority produced
the peculiar ethical values of mutual personal relationships.
Here once again Paul has preceded us with his formulas.
Mediaeval social doctrine now emphasizes both these ideas, the
idea of the organism and the idea of patriarchalism, as the
essential meaning of the fundamental theory.
The mighty organized structure of the Mediaeval Church, with
its great main divisions into the three classes of priests, monks, and
laymen, in which, further, the clergy were fully organized, in a
well-articulated system of various ranks and grades, together
with the contemporary classified structure of the general life of
Society, combine to form the idea of a general organism which is
composed of various classes and groups. The Corpus mysticum with
its services and duties, and also with the honours and needs of
the individual members, which show the relation of the part to
the whole, becomes the theory of the conception of Society in
itself, and each social group is characterized as a corpus morale et
politicum , or as a corpus mysticum , in which individuals are always
described as members of an organic whole . 131 At the same time,
however, a voluntary mutual relationship of this kind between
131 See p. 415.
a86 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
all these parts and members, which, in particular instances, owe
their position purely to compulsion, and theoretically contain a
large element of non-liberty, which, moreover, are maintained in
their position by the idea of a kind of caste-tradition — is only
possible by laying great stress on patriarchal ideas. This patriarch-
alism, however, is not given any special prominence in most of
the presentations of the Catholic social ideal. It seems to be
implied in the organic idea itself, which indeed for its part em-
phasizes the variety of the groups and services, and in so doing
requires a mutual adjustment of all the inequalities which the
organism contains. Out of the organic idea, however, there still
follows only the division of labour and service in general, and
something which, it is true, is rational, necessary, and harmonious.
But in addition to those inequalities which the conception of an
organism requires there are some which far transcend the purpose
of the harmonious unification of the members into one body —
inequalities which are created purely by the supreme power of
force, by the arbitrary power of positive law, by the privileges or
accidents of Nature ; there are differences of disposition and of
destiny which can only be held to proceed from the inscrutable
Will of God, and which cannot be explained in rational terms.
All this is gathered up into the patriarchal conception, and is
overcome by it alone, both in the spiritual and the ethical sphere.
Further, the continual exhortations to the lower classes to
evince humility and gratitude, and to the ruling classes to exercise
paternal care and love, go far beyond the demands which the
merely organic idea needed to raise in the interests of mutual
harmony. The demands, therefore, are also based always on
passages from the Bible, especially from Paul and the proverbial
Wisdom of the Old Testament. This idea is classically represented
by the type of the Family, and from this it is transferred to the
whole, as the idea of the organism spread from the Corpus mysticum
of the Church to the rest of the social institutions.
From the very beginning, in the ethic of the Primitive Church,
tire original model of all social relationships was that of the domin-
ation of the husband within the family over wife and children,
and the willing subordination of the members of the family, as
well as of the servants, to the authority of the housefather; the
virtues of obedience, free self-conquest, reverence, and self-
giving love, on the part of the latter, and the virtues of care for
others, self-sacrifice, readiness to bear responsibility, on the part
of the former, were exalted as the fundamental virtues of the
closest and most intimate human relationships.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 287
The mediaeval ideal of the Family remained the same; it laid
very great emphasis likewise upon the authority of the husband.
This element comes down from ancient Germanic times, and is a
relic of the old military organizations ; indeed, it can be traced
back farther still, beyond that which had already been attained.
It lies behind the conception of the F amily in the Primitive Church,
and is present in the modifications of the ideal contained in
Roman, Hellenistic, and Jewish Society.
In this respect all that Christianity did was to modify from
within this idea of male domination by its teaching about love
and good will ; it only established the principle, on the one hand,
by voluntary submission, and, on the other, by stressing the duty
of individuals to develop a right attitude in their relations with
each other; externally, however, it permitted the conditions of
authority and subordination to continue as they were before,
although with important and increasing security for the individual
personality of women, children, and servants.
The patriarchalism of natural authority gives place to the
patriarchalism of love, with its emphasis upon voluntary sub-
ordination, and the duty of looking after the welfare of others.
In so doing, however, the relationships themselves become
softened and humanized. This sociological ideal of the Family
as the original ideal of human relationships is applied to all
the conditions of rule and subordination in general. Repeatedly
we are reminded that Christendom is a great family, in which the
virtues of the Family ethically hallow and glorify all the infinitely
varied mutual relationships of humanity . 132
The fundamental sociological theory, therefore, is expressed in
those two ideas : the idea of the organism and the patriarchal
conception of the Family. Further, both these ideas are very
closely related to each other. Both are based upon and deduced
from the fundamental Christian idea of the love of God and the
love of man. The unity and solidarity of the organism arises first
of all out of the idea of the community and of the Church, in
which all the members are members of Christ or of the Body of
Christ, and the various sections of the Church, the clergy, mo nks ,
laity — with their various functions — act as the complement of
each other in mutual love, and in their common love of God,
to form the united body .of the Church, or the Corpus mysticum.
This doctrine of the Corpus mysticum is, then, only extended and
combined in theory with the Platonic and Aristotelian doctrine
of the harmonious unity of the aim of Society, together with
132 See p. 416.
288 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the varying destiny and service of individual members and
groups.
Thus the whole of Christian Society appears as an organism
composed of groups and classes both from within and without the
Church, inspired and shaped by the realization of the absolute
aim of salvation, an analogy to the comprehension of various
elements and groups in the sub-human and Individual human
organism. In so doing it takes its place in the graduated series of
the cosmic realms of ends as the realm of organized human
reason, as the stage from which the realm of reason is raised into
the mystical unity of life. Above it there is, then, only the realm
of immaterial spirit, or of the angels, which in its several choirs
and inequalities is likewise organized on the lines of an organism.
Patriarchalism is to be interpreted and derived from the
Christian idea of love in exactly the same way ; the only difference
is that here it is not a question of fusing the objective groups
within the Church and within Society into an inclusive solidarity
of love, but it is a question of the differences of inequality, as they
are felt subjectively, in the shape of a sense of privilege or of
injustice in the demands which the individual makes on life. Love
banishes individualistic personal desires, and a position of privilege
becomes an opportunity for service, evil is overcome by good,
and those who act thus find their own lives broadened and
enriched by the relations into which they enter through the unity
of love which includes the whole. At the same time, however, the
necessity for this patriarchalism only arises out of the conditions
of fallen humanity, and it is peculiar to the Church Militant. In
the Church Triumphant (as in the angelic spheres) the organic
principle will again be supreme.
Although both these conceptions are closely connected with
each other through their common basis in the idea of love, their
functions within the whole system are very different ; indeed, they
are actually opposed.
The conception of the organism assumes the unity of human
society in relation to an absolute goal — that is, with the Church
and the salvation which it offers. Thus it means a unity in which
is involved the recognition of the Church as the soul of the whole
organism, in which, of course, the freedom of the Church and its
dominant position is implied. This ide§ also implies the necessity
for mutual consideration on the part of all the groups, estates, and
authorities amongst themselves. Thus it constitutes an ideal of a
complete social harmony, with the further implication that
whenever this harmony, in actual fact, has been disturbed, it
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 289
ought to be restored. Finally, and above all, it means that each
member within the system possesses an end and a dignity of his
own, and this lays upon each individual the obligation to assist
every other member to enter into his spiritual inheritance where
it is necessary.
The organic idea, however, is also the active, formative critical
principle of Christian sociology, which on occasion can even
become revolutionary. Unjust institutions, which are not obedient
to the Law of God, may and must be altered ; godless rulers must
be deposed or warned, and taught to amend their ways. The
“right of resistance” and of rebellion is a right of the Christian
conscience for the sake of love and of organic harmony — that is to
say, if it can be exercised without causing still greater general
disorder. The Church especially is justified in her struggle against
godless and insubordinate State authorities, and is therefore
justified in revolution. In so doing she is only maintaining the
uniformity of the Christian body. Also differences of rank, which
are otherwise so strongly emphasized, are lost sight of in this sense
of solidarity, and in relation to the final religious goal. The lan-
guage of the doctrine of Society can then sound almost democratic,
and it can emphasize strongly the “Natural Law” Christian claim
of the individual for a share of the whole and of its goods.
In the Canon Law — that is, in the supreme law of the Corpus
Christianum , which is above all particular and class rights — all
have equal rights, and all are obliged to submit to the same
judicial procedure; this, of course, assumes their orthodoxy —
that is, their relation to the central end of the organism. It is a
beginning of the idea of subjective public rights . 133
At this point, therefore, the individualistic naturalistic Law of
Nature links up with the Christian world of thought, and it
penetrates as deeply into it as it possibly can, in view of the
predominance of the organic idea of solidarity. It is only into the
conception of the Church itself that these individualistic Natural
Law elements do not penetrate. Within the idea of the Church
there exists only the absolute rule of the Pope ; among his subjects
there is no co-operation at all ; the individualism of the organic
system is here limited to the salvation of the soul, which is to be
conferred by the Church.
The Conciliar movement, however, then extended the organic
idea also to the system of Church government, in the sense of a
share in it being given to individuals, first of all to the bishops,
then also to certain classes of laymen. This extension of powers
133 See p. 418.
ago THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
was based upon the theory that the Church as a societas perfecta , as
the epitome of Society, ought to realize the ideal of the organism
in this sense. The Church, however, rejected this interpretation
and extension of the organic idea. 133a The Church cultivated an
extensive personal individualism, but she did not permit this to
penetrate into the sphere of Church government itself; she only
used it, when necessary, against secular institutions which were
hostile to God, and harsh and oppressive towards the Church.
If, however, in this direction the organic idea (that is, of the
share and co-operation of the individual in the common values of
life), makes individualism a vital force, summoning it to ration-
alize its claims in accordance with reality, in the other direction it
pro claims an amazingly far-reaching solidarity, by the very fact
that the recognition of these values, and the common effort to
realize them in practice, does bind individuals closely together.
From that point individualism veers towards Socialism. We
need only add the further elements of Christian humility and
brotherly love, together with the estimate of private property as a
development which has a relative usefulness, but which is quite
secondary, and to some extent always has to be removed — and the
theory of a communism which will meet every kind of need is
complete. This kind of communism has its permanent living
example in the Religious Orders, and, finally, in the Church itself,
but the guilds and the constitution of the courts also contain
elements of communism. Such communism, however, must always
be combined with the rights and the protection of the individual,
and it must always recognize and defend useful private initiative ;
also it never serves the ends of merely material welfare, but it is
always merely the basis of a perfecta societas , ensuring the higher
ends of life. Thus it always remains a merely relative kind of
communism, which only intervenes in case of need. Incidentally,
however, from this standpoint the organic idea can still produce —
along with the supernatural character and stability of the religious
foundation of the whole — both strongly democratic and individu-
alistic demands, and also socialistic and communistic demands,
and in so doing it may cut very deeply into existing conditions.
Both these tendencies are based equally upon the rational Lex
naturae and upon the Ethos of revelation; in this respect, indeed,
133a Q n the extension of the individualistic and constitutional elements of the
organic idea to the government of the Church, and on the theory of the
Church as the societas perfecta , that is, as the sum-total of the sociological
fundamental theory, see John Neville: Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius. Cambridge,
i9°7> PP- 35-36.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 291
these tendencies finally coalesce ; and their combination, in spite
of an external similarity, fundamentally distinguishes those con-
ceptions from modem rationalist democratic individualism, or
even from Socialism itself . 1 3 3b
On the other hand, the conservative, stabilizing aspect of the
system, which accepts actual conditions as it finds them, is due
to the patriarchal idea. Society is full of inequalities of every
kind, both in the Church and in the world. The equality which
does exist is exclusively religious, and even here the position of
clergy, monks, and laymen is very different. These inequalities,
however, are most evident in the relations between master and
servant, and in differences in property, official position, and the
various secular callings. In this respect it is the duty of every man
to remain within his own class, and to serve others gladly. The
Christian virtues are not progress and change, but the preserva-
tion of healthy organizations and contentment with one’s present
position in relation to the whole. Resistance may only be offered
when the Christian conscience is injured and the practice of the
faith is hindered. In this direction the influence of Christian
sociology is conservative and traditionalist; indeed, in many
respects it has a directly quietistic tendency . 1330
It was along this line, then, that the ideas about natural in-
equalities — talent and incapacity — and, above all, the theories
about the effect of sin, became important; this latter idea was
held to explain why man has to submit to despotic rule — it is a
punishment and a means of discipline ; despotisms are regarded
as effected by God, as causa remota , just as much as systems of
government which have been reasonably established by means
of treaties and a plebiscite. From this point of view, then, the
ruling powers appear to have been appointed by the permission
and Providence of God. Politically this means that the ideas of
the Divine Right of Kings, and of the patriarchal-Christian duties
of education and example which belong to the ruling powers,
become important; these are the ideals which are developed in
the treatise De regimine principis .
To a greater extent than in the sphere of politics, however, this
idea gains significance within the social sphere itself. Here it
133b See p. 4x9. *
i33c The illustrations of this will be found below, in the description of the
conception of the calling, and of the question of the idea of equality; see also
the sections dealing with asceticism and with the architectonic nature of
development. The class idea appears everywhere as one of the most essential
elements in mediaeval thought in all its ramifications.
292 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
works in the direction of class stability, and encourages the idea
of the supreme importance of the idea of social position. In
addition to the protection of the individual, and the solidarity
of mutual help within the framework of the class organization, it
signifies pre-eminently order and stability in social life, content-
ment with existing circumstances, the cessation of the menacing
struggle for existence by recognizing the existing classification
of social groups. In close connection with this stability of the class
organization there arises economic traditionalism, which secures
a livelihood to each group, but which also maintains each group
in that higher or lower station in life which is suited to it . 134
The question, however, whether in any particular case the
progressive or the stabilizing principle ought to be applied gives
rise each time to a complicated exercise of casuistry. This process
of casuistry arrives at a decision by considering the probable
result and effect of a certain course of action upon the whole, and,
in so doing, as far as possible it appeals to the Aristotelian ethic
and doctrine of Society; yet every time ideas are utilized which
in reality are logically developed from the fundamental idea of
the Christian Church, or which at any rate could be made to
conform to them.
This theory represents that peculiar mixture of active and
militant, passive and quietistic elements, of legitimist and abso-
lutist, and of democratic and individualistic points of view, of
revolution from above and from below, of optimistic rationalism,
and of a pessimistic sense of sin, which dominate the sociology of
Catholic thought down to the present day. In order to understand
the source of this peculiar blend of ideas less attention needs to
be paid to the conjunction of various influences such as ideas
from antiquity, from Germanic sources, from the Church and
from the Bible, and more consideration should be given to the
dual tendency of the sociological fundamental theory — to the
existence, side by side, of the idea of the organism and the idea
of patriarchalism.
This complexity and power of manifold application lies in the
Christian idea itself as soon as it is applied to secular and social
conditions; it is not merely the result of accidental historical
confluences. All that does depend upon these accidental historical
confluences is the form of the systematized theory and the scale
of the social horizon.
The tensions and inconsistencies which are involved in the
blending of these ideas are no serious difficulty for Catholic
134 See p. 419.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 293
thought, because in all these difficulties the final decision is made
by the ecclesiastical authority, which refers each given case to the
highest aim of the whole system, that is, to religion. It is this fact
which explains the strongly casuistical and varying character of
the decisions, upon which is based the possibility temporum ratione
habita of meeting conditions with very divergent positive standards.
The various underlying tendencies connected with this theory,
however, later on in the process of historical development have
led away from Catholic doctrine in a very different direction, to
emancipation and secularization, to modern developments of
individual elements.
The constituent parts which represented the ideas of the
organism, of individualism, and of Natural Law were joined with
nascent Liberalism, while the patriarchal and positivist ideas were
linked up with the purely realistic absolutist doctrine of sove-
reignty, whether in the form of the Machiavellian tyranny, or as
we see it in religious guise in the doctrine of Divine Right.
Catholic sociology, however, in face of these modem one-sided
developments, prides itself upon possessing the harmonious prin-
ciple which balances all these different tendencies, and unites them
all in the one fundamental religious idea. At the same time the
impossibility of preserving this harmony without the continual
intervention of authority, and the sense of the absolute necessity
of a Divine central authority for a system which can only be
organized from the religious point of view, is to Catholic sociology
the proof of the intellectual necessity for the Divine authority of
the Papacy which it asserts.
From that point of view it is quite plain, why, in spite of all
the disturbances and progressive movements of the later Middle
Ages, the Church has always returned to the doctrines of
Thomism . 135
Among these various opinions the Thomist ethic stands out as
the real masterpiece of reconciliation. Further, it is evident that
in reality this social doctrine contains a wealth of wise psycho-
logical observation, and a host of methods for the solution of
difficult sociological problems, which the modern social doctrines
are only able to meet with great effort.
A “Cosmos of Callings 55
*
Both points of view, however, find a common ground, particu-
larly in the idea which is so vitally important for the whole
system, the conception of the “calling”, of the officium or minis-
186 See on this point the suggestions in Th. Meyer: pp. 48 ff.
294 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
terium which is allotted to the individual member in relation to
the whole. The teaching of St. Paul and of the Early Church
about remaining “in the calling to which one has been called 55
becomes all the more necessary when the differences of class and
organization are regarded as de Lege naturae ; it becomes, with the
Lex naturae , together with the positions appointed by grace, the
doctrine of the officium or ministerium , or of “vocation 55 within the
whole.
Since men’s capacities are unequal and none can influence the
whole, and since the division of labour is the result of the in-
equality of human powers, the organization according to class
and profession is not something which has been produced by sin
and the perversion of the world, but something which has been
willed by God in accordance with the harmony of the world,
and in line with His purposes of Grace. It cannot be emphasized
too strongly that this ethic has introduced into social philosophy,
and into the whole sociological temper, an idea which was un-
known in the Early Church. Quite obviously it contains the strong
tendency to a positive valuation of “the world 55 , to the incorpora-
tion of the existing situation into the cosmos of life-values, which
is visible in the whole Thomist and later mediaeval system.
In the Gospel, labour and professional work were regarded
from the point of view of the manual labourer and of the lower
middle classes, which is familiar from the ethics of the Talmud,
and which were common to the Hellenistic East. But under the
expectation of the great transformation of the world which brooded
over primitive times they did not receive a positive religious value ;
they belonged to a provisional state of life.
When the Church began to turn her attention to the world
she then worked out mainly the ideal of the equality of the
Primitive State from the purely religious idea of equality, and
in so doing she glorified the new order of life and love which the
Church had introduced, regarding existing inequalities as the
result of the Fall. We must also take into account the state of
Society in the Ancient World, in which, along with all the economic
connections and organizations, the ideal of the citizen still always
remained that of the private gentleman who is not directly con-
cerned with the narrow business world. In this respect Christianity
never entirely overcame the spirit of the ancient Polls (city-state).
When, therefore, in the later Middle Ages the idea of “the calling 55
came to be recognized and accepted — carrying with it the implica-
tions of the value of the unequal positions of work and service
for the whole system, as expressions of love, and as a duty and
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 295
service to the whole, with the ethical value of a personal relation
towards the whole — the reason for this, naturally, does not lie
merely in the use of the Pauline idea of the organism, and in
the example of the organic form of the ecclesiastical organiza-
tion, but also in the actual form which mediaeval Society had
assumed.
The underlying ideal of mediaeval Society was primarily that
of the feudal system — with its corporations, its dependence, and
its service ; afterwards, however, probably it was mainly the ideal
of the industrial town of the Middle Ages, with its cohesion in a
system of organization, law, and the service of free labour. Not in
vain does St. Thomas always lay stress on the town in his economic
writings— on the town in which that system of service, cleansed
from violence and brutality, was based upon free labour and
personal service for the whole. This actual situation, through its
incorporation into the religious and organic theory as c Vocation 53 ,
is idealized and rationalized — and perhaps the whole business is
not so topsy-turvy as it might seem. It was not the Christian
attitude towards work and an ecclesiastical movement for the
emancipation of the serfs which produced this world of civil
callings. In the first place it was the result of economic and
political conditions, as will appear later. On the contrary, it was
rather this achievement of the city in the cause of emancipation,
in the division of labour, and in setting free those who had been
enslaved, which essentially created the new positive conception
of “the calling 55 as a rational constituent part of the social
system.
Here also, however, the Irrational patriarchal elements once
more press their way into this rational system of “callings 53 , which,
under certain circumstances, makes a social programme possible ;
when this happens the pessimistic conservative and passive
elements in the social ideas of the Early Church gain a strong,
even though a modified, influence.
The duty and the position, namely, of the individual member
still remain limited, in various ways, by pure positive law,
by violence, and by accident, and the positions and duties
which thus become unworthy and oppressive are also estimated
as callings and services within which the Christian ought to
remain.
To sum up these “irrational 55 elements which lead to a passive
acceptance of the inequalities appointed by God : in the Family
the ruling element is a male domination, which extends to the
complete absorption of the wife's property by her husband, and
296 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the dominance of the male includes an extensive right of discipline ;
this state of affairs must be patiently endured as the result of the
curse of sin. Again, the masses of the serfs have been bound to
serve their masters since the Fall, and actual slavery persists
throughout the Middle Ages, for as a result of the Fall
labour has become punishment and pain; it is laid as an
obligation upon different classes and callings, though in very
different ways, for the claims on life are strongly differentiated
according to class and position, so that, on the one hand, more
freedom is permitted to those in the higher ranks of Society, while,
on the other, no man may try to rise beyond the limits of his
class, nor forsake the position or the calling which he inherits
from his father. These elements engender a spirit of patience,
of humility and suffering, which permeates the whole of life. It
has no connection with the joy of fulfilling one’s calling within
the organic organization, but it is rather a passive accept-
ance of the results of the Fall, and of inequalities appointed
by God.
Here also there is that combination of rational and irrational
elements, of purposeful development and positive Divine appoint-
ment, of aspiring movement towards a goal, and a clouded
atmosphere caused by sin and the penalty of sin, which we find
in the whole of the mediaeval system. It is obvious that only a
casuistic ethic of class and calling could find a way out of all these
complications . 136
Complex Character of this Social Theory
While, however, very divisive tendencies are already connected
with the union of these two ideas, each one of them also contains
within itself a number of very varying motives, and in these
complications there lie further difficulties, which it is the task of
the social philosophy of the Church to overcome.
This fact comes out very clearly in connection with Patriarchal-
ism. At first this theory contains nothing more than the doctrine
of an essential inequality of mankind, which is based, in the last
resort, upon the irrational appointment of God, whose Will
ordains very varied and unequal situations ; it contains, further,
the idea of the inward ethical conquest of these inequalities by
the idea of love, which, both in service and in care for others,
everywhere gives itself freely and self-sacrificingly for the good
of the whole and for the brethren. It is purely an ethical and
religious sociological idea, which is directly involved in the ideal
136 See p. 420.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 297
of religious equality and of actual variety; in itself it can be ap-
plied to the existing inequalities both in a passive and a quietistic
sense as well as in a reforming and purifying sense ; the attitude
is determined by the way in which the existing inequalities are
regarded; either they are accepted simply as they are, or only
those among them are recognized which are really based un-
changeably and essentially in human nature and in historical
development.
Further, however, Patriarchalism contains the theological idea
of the Primitive Church, of a shaping of the inequality into
differences of power and authority, of possessions, and of natural
qualities, which is not the result of the inequality ordained by
God in itself, but which is the result and the penalty of the Fall,
since the passions introduced by the Fall — selfishness, lust of
power, and sensuality — influence human conditions in opposition
to the Christian and natural idea of social harmony.
In this respect Catholic social doctrine, even in its mediaeval
form, in which certainly it has largely overcome the passive
detachment of the Early Church, and has found a positive and
organic relation with the natural social development, still pre-
scribes to a great extent the virtues of patience and humility, the
spirit of acceptance of the penalty for sin, and of willing suffering
as an expiation for sin.
It is a Christian spirit of deliberate gloom which here makes
itself felt; when it is combined with ascetic tendencies and
practices it often goes to great lengths of self-depreciation, and loss
of all sense of value ; then it merges with all the pessimistic moods
which lead to the renunciation of the world.
So far as the whole of social philosophy is concerned, Thomism
pushes this spirit of self-depreciation far into the background,
and lays great emphasis upon the positive attitude towards
social organizations and aspirations and developments, but in the
doctrine of sin and of the corruption of the world and of humanity
this pessimism, with all its assumptions, is retained, incidentally,
and in particular instances. From these particular points, when
occasion arises, it can again and again penetrate far into the
whole. It is doubly inclined to do this in the mediaeval doctrine
which incorporates Aristotle, because this brings, even though in
a very limited way, a third element into social philosophy — that
of ethical Naturalism.
Thus those elements which from the Christian-Stoic standpoint
of the Early Church appeared to be purely the punishment for
sin and the corruption of the world, from the empirical-realistic
298 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
and evolutionary-historical standpoint of Aristotelianism, seemed
to be differences derived from Nature, based upon differences in
talent and in psycho-physical characteristics, which divide man-
kind into ruling peoples and slave peoples, which divide callings
into those which are noble and according to reason, and those
which are merely servile, without reason and ignoble. For the
aristocracy this leads to the point of view of the “lord and master 55
and the Divine Right of Kings, for the rest of the population to a
position of dependence and service within the duties of one’s
calling.
However little in itself this theory corresponds to the Christian
point of view, it was possible to base it partly upon the doctrine of
the organism, which needs also less honourable functions within
the organism, partly on the doctrine of sin, which can regard whole
nations and classes as delivered over to punishment on account of
sin, and partly on the idea of Providence, which permits powers
to arise and which appoints rulers; in actual experience it has
frequently had this effect. Even in a man of such deep ethical
feeling as St. Thomas it is amazing to see how unquestioningly
he accepts the Aristotelian point of view that the aristocratic and
ruling classes are the logical result of Nature . 137
The varied ideas which are bound up with the idea of the
organism, however, part company almost more clearly still.
In reality the Christian conception of the organism is thor-
oughly and characteristically different from modem “organic 55
ideas of Society . 138 In spite of incidental analogies with biology
and Natural Law, it emphasizes pre-eminently that the social
organism is a work of conscious intelligent creation, in which man
certainly works out the Aristotelian instinct of reason, but in
deliberate obedience to the Will. In this men have a share in the
Divine Providence and government of the world which proceeds
from reason and will, or, rather, in this process it is God who
exalts men to co-operate and to have a conscious part in the
carrying out of His Will . 139
In the conception of the organism, therefore, it is less the
formation according to law and evolution which is emphasized
than that of the unity of the whole, which is foreordained to
the members, and which is described as one which is appointed
137 See p. 421. #
138 Examples of this in P. Barth: Geschichtsphilosophie als Soziologie and Kisiia -
kowski: Gesellschaft and Einzelwesen . For the mediaeval thinker the biological
illustrations meant very much less than they do now, since he knew nothing
of the whole modern conception of Natural Law. 139 See p. 421.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 299
by reason and will. That is the essential element which is taken
over from the thought of Aristotle . 140
Then, however, the question arises : in what does this unity,
fore-ordained for the individual, consist? It is the familiar diffi-
culty of the organic idea of Society in the idealistic sense of Plato —
that Society realizes an idea of harmony and of the supremacy of
the highest spiritual values over Nature ; it only does this, however,
in general ; in particular, it makes use of individuals for the realiza-
tion of this ideal value, leaving it a matter of entire indifference
whether each individual himself has an actual share in the value
which is represented by the whole.
Aristotle shares this difficulty in spite of his opposition to the
Platonic “Ideal Man 55 , and in spite of his category of a specific
collective unity of will, since to him the State is the realization of
reason working itself out in fellowship, which realizes the ideal of
legal harmony and order, but not a sharing of the individual as
such in the values of reason; hence his aristocratic superior
attitude towards mechanical professions, and peoples given over
to slavery . 141
Such a conception of the unity of the organism, however,
although St. Thomas now and again seems to accept it, is com-
pletely impossible for the Christian-organic idea, according to
which everything depends on the individual sharing in the value
of the spiritual personal life which is to be realized through the
whole . 142
Since, however, on the one hand, the organic idea teaches the
differentiated incorporation of individuals into the whole, and
the unequal relation of the members to the purpose of the whole,
while Christian individualism, on the other hand, requires that
each individual shall have a share in the collective purpose : both
the fore-ordained unity of the organism and the position of the
individual towards the central aim of the organism became some-
thing quite different.
In the last resort the prescribed unity becomes the authority
which inspires and directs the whole, which, according to the
principles of distributive righteousness, appoints to each accord-
ing to his position and in his measure, a share in the central value
of the whole.
14 ° p or the emphasis upon unity in face of multiplicity and its connection
with Aristotle, as well as with the ecclesiastical doctrine of authority, see
Gierke , III, 515/. ; hence all the insistence upon unity and monarchy even in
particular forms of social organization.
141 See p. 421. 142 See p« 422.
3 oo THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Thus each individual organism within the great system is
regarded as directed and held together by one authority, since
it rightly (that is, with consideration for the individual) realizes
the specific end of the particular group, of the family, the urban
community, the State, of the guilds and societies. Thus, with its
central religious purpose the religious authority is exalted above
the whole as the real soul of the whole of human society in all its
degrees and groups ; this authority in part allows the particular
groups to realize their ends themselves, in part it intervenes in
case of need, with its rectifying activity, implanting righteousness ;
above all, it directs and defines the whole itself in its fundamental
conditions, in order that each individual in his own way, and
in his own place, may find his own part which is in accordance
with the eternal purpose.
An idea of reason which inspires development, and in so doing
realizes itself, is replaced by authority, which, directly or indirectly,
guides every individual towards the highest End of all ; or, rather,
the product of the reasonable entelechy and development of
Society is only truly organized in the sense of righteousness by the
supernatural authority, which, if it is left to reason alone, is always
imperilled, even entirely apart from all the obscurity which has
been caused by the Fall. In the last resort the “organism 35 is
considered as the directing authority for the organizations created
by natural instinct and understanding of the purpose of life towards
the real and ultimate religious End, and this directive authority
is the teaching and pastoral office of the Church, which reaches
its highest point in the Papacy. For that very reason, too, the
Conciliar movement was illogical when it tried to organize the
hierarchy itself— the seat of authority — in terms of an “organism 33 .
The hierarchy directs the organism, yet it is not itself to be under-
stood in an “organic 53 sense; this statement, however, shows most
clearly that the actual organic idea has been discarded. The
organic idea of unity is transformed into the idea of authority,
which regulates the participation of individuals in the value of
the whole, in harmony with the infallible authority, without
allowing individuals to express an opinion in the matter. The
problem is solved by confidence in and reverence for authority . 143
The relationship between the individuals who have been placed
in very different positions by the organism still remains very
unequal. For the attainment of the purpose of human life some
individuals seem far more highly favoured than others. The
“organic doctrine 35 of the Church met this difficulty, on the one
143 See p. 423.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 301
hand, by formulating the religious doctrine of vicarious oblations,
which arose out of its conception of “merit 55 and of love, and, on
the other hand, by a doctrine of perfection which allows for
quantitative differences, but which does not on that account do
away with the aim in principle.
Both these ideas have already been emphasized in the section
on the estimate of mediaeval asceticism, and also in the description
of the merely architectonic character of the idea of development.
Here we now perceive their value and their function in the whole
system, and their fundamental significance in Catholic social
philosophy as a whole. Only in this form could an essentially
Christian individualism become incorporated into a system which
subordinates individuals to the restoration of a social unity
organized within itself— a system which equally recognizes within
this social unity the conditions of the natural life, with its enor-
mous variety in the struggle for existence which has been effected
by Nature and by History, with all its opposition to the super-
natural ideal of the religious ethic of love. Thus the immense
difficulty, essentially inherent in the Christian idealism of person-
ality and of love, of producing a universal social ideal at all, has
been overcome ; the ecclesiastical authority takes all the institu-
tions of Society under its administration, and ensures to the in-
dividual a just share in the central purpose; the equal participa-
tion of all in the objective value of the system is at the same time
linked up with the moral achievement of the individual, and it is
not a natural claim ; beyond this it is sufficient for the individual
to have a proportionate share in the bonum commune in things
secular and sacred, according to his position within the organism ;
the individual’s share in supernatural salvation is also different in
proportion. As the ethic of development makes it possible to
render radical Christian standards relative, and also connects
relative ethical values with the Christian ideal, so the idea of
“proportion 55 conquers the difficulties of the social relativism
which is implied in the organic idea. Providence, the Church,
and the world-reason which indwells the laws of social formation
see to it that in any case this proportional equality within the
organism is attainable through an authority which apportions
justice rightly. Every instance of a real and complete separation
from the objective value in general has its root in the guilt and
evil will of the individual. If, however, this element of evil is
ultimately ascribed to predestination, this opens up a sinister
irrational background to which the Thomist system and con-
temporary Catholicism do not care to direct more attention
302 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
than can be helped. Rather* within the system the Divine Will is
only emphasized in so far as institutions and differences in general
are referred to it ; this is done in such a manner* however* that
their contribution to the restoration of an organic whole is
emphasized more strongly than anything else. In spite of these
differences, however, it is possible for men to attain at least a
proportionate share in the absolute values of life and fellowship,
and this proportional participation is dependent upon the quali-
ties of frugality and submission, as well as upon the individual 3 s
care for others and the exercise of charity ; through the manifesta-
tion of such qualities these differences are again swept away by
the Love of God which creates the whole organism.
If the real difficulty both of an idealistic religious social ethic,
and also of the Christian social ethic, lies in the fact that, on the
one hand, it only achieves the development of individuals by
promoting them to a share in objective values which are univers-
ally valid, and which bind them together in fellowship, while,
on the other hand, it is only able to secure, in an unequal and
defective manner, the share of the particular individual in these
objective values supported by the community in face of the
differences effected by Nature; the difficulty, however, is here
overcome by faith in the Law of Reason which satisfies everyone,
and is dominant in the social structure, by that authority which
carries out distributive justice, inspires the whole, and attains its
highest point in the central authority of the Church, while
individuals are satisfied with a merely proportionate share in the
absolute and relative values of fellowship ; as this corresponds to
the individual’s position within the organism, it will of necessity
be a variable quantity. Thus also the no less essential opposition
of the ethic of love towards the organizations of secular interests is
overcome, since the ethic of love in the highest sense is predomi-
nantly ascetic, and appointed to a particular calling and a par-
ticular class, while a lower standard of perfection is expected from
the laity; this perfection, however, does not cease to be perfect
in its own way, since the service rendered by the laity is also
directed towards the highest End of life. From this point of view
the idea of unity and yet of difference is extended right up to the
Church Triumphant; each degree and each calling has its par-
ticular reward and its special meed of bliss, and in Paradise
Beatrice teaches her poet that the fact that there are different
degrees of celestial bliss does not alter the fact that all
is joy . 144
144 See p. 424.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
303
Idea of Social Reform absent from Thomism
Thus out of manifold complications Catholic social philosophy
again attains to an impressive unity. We might then imagine that
a system of this kind would have a very deep influence upon
practical social life. In actual fact that did take place very often,
but never deliberately and systematically, in the shape of an
ecclesiastical social reform. This points to a further characteristic
feature of the social philosophy of Catholicism. The concentration
of Christianity upon the inward, personal, and religious aspects of
life was still predominant ; this comes out clearly in the fact that
even when the Christian unity of civilization had been restored,
the only result was that the strongest resistance of all, the
opposition of the independent secular powers, was broken
down, and certain rights of the Church were established ; there
was still no idea of the need for a systematic transformation of the
social order, subduing and moulding the natural basis of life.
There was still no real understanding of the difficulties and
complications which are inherent in the natural basis of life, and
which hinder it from realizing ideal values. This social philosophy
was, indeed, an all-embracing sociological system, but even at the
height of its intellectual development it was not a programme of
actual social reform. The Christian social doctrine of the Middle
Ages was as far removed from being a programme of social
reform as was the social teaching of the Early Church, although
for different reasons.
While the Early Church accepted the social order of the
Ancient World as something fixed and incapable of being re-
formed, and learnt to tolerate it, as the sinful corruption of the
order of Natural Law, while it strove to heal its harmful effects by
works of charity, the Mediaeval Church, on the other hand,
believed firmly in the Divinely appointed harmony of Nature
and Grace, and regarded the relative approximation of actual
social institutions to the ideals of the Church as the natural,
necessary, logical world-order, which, to be secured only needed
the authority of the Church, and a constant renewal of the vitality
of its religious principles. The centralization of the Church in the
Papacy organized the Church as a religious hierarchy, incorpor-
ated the political powers into the structure, but, so far as economic
life and social life in the narrower sense were concerned all was
left to the Law of Nature. That was as far as the social transforma-
tion extended. To the Early Church social reform was too difficult,
to the Mediaeval Church it seemed superfluous. The Mediaeval
304 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Church idealized the actual situation and declared herself in
favour of the true ideal, which was required both by reason and
by revelation. The relative approximations and preparations
which it discerned as already present in the actual existing situa-
tion it made absolute as the Law of Nature, and it then incor-
porated them into the ecclesiastical, intellectual process as the
architectonic development of history. Even the exercise of charity
was now left to the Religious Orders, to the corporations, and to
the cities, and the Church confined herself to the consolidation of
her own power, believing that if this were secured everything
else would naturally fall into line. Social reform simply meant the
struggle for the Church and for Natural Law. That, however, did
not mean that Society was to be remoulded on the lines of radical
Christian thought, but that a comparatively satisfactory situation
was stabilized, and that the relative natural values of Society were
exalted to the rank of the absolute supernatural values of the
Church. There was no need for Christianity to transform the
world ; rather God rules the world in so far as it approaches the
standard of the Church.
Hence modern Catholic social reform is also primarily a return
to the principles of Christian Natural Law and of the dominion
of the Church; it is opposed to the idea that new conditions
require a new theoretical structure of social ideas, and it en-
courages the fight against the errors of Liberalism. Only quite
recently has the Papacy come forward with pronouncements upon
social and economic questions, after the modern world has
demonstrated their difficult and complicated character. Its
teaching on these questions, however, only consists in recalling
Society to a conscious and systematic return to “natural 55 prin-
ciples, in a world in which the times are out of joint. 144a In itself
the idea is the same as that of the Mediaeval Church ; this theory
does not capitulate, like the Primitive Church, to the power of
the natural basis of life which is under the influence of sin;
neither, however, like modern Idealism, does it seek to restore
the highest ethical ideals of an unconditional value of personality,
and of a free inward spiritual fellowship, by the subjugation of
an antagonistic and difficult natural basis by means of human
labour and insight, but it believes in the Divinely appointed
harmony between the natural basis of life and the Christian and
ecclesiastical superstructure as it was approximately realized in
144a This, above all, is to the credit of Leo XII, the “social 93 Pope; his mandates
are behind all modern Catholic works of this kind. Cf. Mausbach: Christentum
und Weltmoral , p. 44 .
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 305
the great period of the Middle Ages, manifesting therein the
great law of the Divine Government of the world. It claims that
Liberal theories have destroyed the true understanding of Natural
Law, and that the practice of Liberalism has sinfully disturbed
the process of true Nature. What is required is the restoration of
the true Natural Law and of the dominion of the Church, and
Nature will again follow its harmonious course, completed and
supported by charitable activity, and by the appropriate healing
of the specific evils which have been produced by Capitalism and
a machine age . 145
Catholic Conception of Law
Finally, this is also connected with the ultimate fundamental
peculiarity of Catholic social doctrine ; its peculiar conception of
Law, which contrasts sharply with the modern doctrine of the
creation of law by the will of the State. While the modern theory
will only recognize law formally, as law, when it has been produced
by the will of the State — even when it sanctions social and ethical
ideas which it contained before the State was formed — and thus
imparts to the modern State the unrest of a continually renewed
attempt to transform ethical and rational demands into legal
enactments, Catholic social doctrine conceives Natural Law as
existing before the State, which binds it to a positive legal working
out of the organic and patriarchal theories of Christian Natural
Law. In so doing it is free to take into account variation in
circumstances and in suitability, but it is still bound to consider
that which it creates as the working out of the principles of
Natural Law, and continually to improve them according to its
insight into Natural Law. Here also that means that all that is
essential is already in existence, has already been “given”, that the
course of Nature and of Providence of itself guides humanity into
right knowledge, that the State, like all positive expressions of
law, must order its life according to these principles, and that
only from this standpoint do its law- s attain their binding character.
This, however, means that no room at all is left for any idea of a
great social transformation, which the State, by means of fresh
legislation, might introduce for the moulding of new conditions.
Nothing, then, remains save to have recourse to eternal and un-
changeable principles, which can only be adapted to new condi-
tions in their application to particular instances. This “Law of
Nature” is no revolutionary, world-transforming theory, which
has been newly discovered by human reason, like the Natural
14 & See p. 424.
3 o6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Law of the Enlightenment, or the modern theories of the State
and of Society; it is a conservative, organic, and patriarchal
conception of the Law of Nature, which is under the protection
of the Church, and is only entirely intelligible to the illuminated
Christian reason, even although, in itself, it proceeds from pure
reason. It is rather a rationalism which quiets the mind with
accepted truths, which can be supported by definite proofs, than
one of critical initiative and reform. The world order is based
upon reason, it is true, but this basis is not human reason but
Divine; it is objective, not subjective. That, too, only explains
why it unites itself so easily with supernaturalism and with the
ecclesiastical mysticism of grace . 146
Retrospect and Forecast
From these two general characteristic features which have just
been described two conclusions may be drawn: (i) We gain a
final view of the universal social philosophy of Catholicism which
arises out of Thomism and which permanently maintains its
dominant position; (2) from this standpoint we gain a deeper
insight into the essential nature of Christian social philosophy in
general, into the possibilities of social philosophy which are
contained in Ghristian thought, and thus we gain fresh light upon
the course of their past and future development.
The Middle Ages created a Christian unity of civilization and
a comprehensive Christian sociological fundamental idea. This
unity of civilization, however, did not constitute a social reform
in accordance with Christian principles; it simply meant the
acceptance of relatively favourable actual conditions, and their
fusion with the religious and ecclesiastical world into a harmoni-
ously developed whole. This was made possible by the fact that
the situation produced by the general conditions was not regarded
as a fortunate historical accident, but as a logically necessary
result of Nature ; and the inherited conception of the moral Law
of Nature was then applied to these politico-social conditions,
and made the basis and the standard of all the positive legislation
of the State. Thus the Natural Law which had been shaped by
the actual situation was now united with the Ethos and the com-
munity-spirit of revelation, just as the teleological metaphysic of
immortality became united with dogma. The structure which
takes place in both cases of the ascent from Nature to Revelation
has, however, its final cause in the Being of God Himself, whose
nature it is to guide the world-process through Nature up to
146 See p, 426.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 307
Supernature by a process of evolution, which, in spite of the
Fall, and even under the conditions of sin, still continues to
develop.
If we regard this result as the culminating point of the previous
historical development, then, in the simplest manner, the past
is illuminated. As has been already pointed out, the Christian
ethic, purely in itself, was the specifically religious ethic of a
personalistic religious way of feeling ; it was an ethic of love and
holiness, of surrender to God in moral obedience, and union in
God by means of a religious love of the brethren. From the stand-
point of this ethic, nature and the natural motives were only the
general bases of life, to be kept within the narrowest limits;
where they transcend those limits they are considered the self-
assertion of the earthly and finite self and the denial of love. It
outlined, therefore, an ideal of personality purely consecrated to
God and rooted in Him, and also the ideal of a community which
overcomes all differences and all hardness purely through love;
it was, however, quite conscious that this ideal can only be
completely realized when there is a new heaven and a new
earth. Thus from the outset it was opposed to any morality
which was connected with the struggle of men with one another ;
its ideal of personality was expressed in courage and honour,
and its ideal of the community in righteousness, an appropriate
solidarity, and a reasonable limitation of spheres of interest. It
held that human honour exists only in relation to God, and it
could therefore renounce all claim to the honour which comes
from men. The Christian ethic knew a spiritual unity which fused
all contradictions in the molten fire of the Love of God, and
therefore it was not concerned about “rights 55 , and the struggle
for “rights 55 . It was thus able to assimilate the ideal of the mono-
gamous family, but not that of the State, with its emphasis upon
law, war, and tyranny, nor that of the economic struggle, with
its emphasis on wealth, power, and possessions.
At all points the Christian ethic was opposed to an ethic which
arose out of the struggle for existence, and it merely moralized
that ethic by ennobling the fighting virtues, and by introducing
ideas of solidarity and of law without discarding this ethic alto-
gether. So far as it was concerned it aimed at the radical removal
of the struggle for existence, in God, and the only conflict it
recognized as lawful was the conflict for truth and love against
selfishness and error. In any case, the Christian ethic everywhere
transcended that relative position which merely moralized the
struggle for existence, and reached out after the absolute ideal
3 o8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of love and holiness. It set itself deliberately to undermine the
motives of the lower ethic, and to remove those conditions of life
which increase the struggle for existence, and the moral endeavours
which only attempt to modify it. Thus the Christian ethic was
unable to influence the society of the Ancient World, whose poli-
tical and popular morality everywhere bore the traces of its
origin in an ethic of conflict, and the effort to limit the sphere of
conflict; all it could appropriate from the Ancient World was the
Stoic doctrine of Natural Law, which already, from its own point
of view, had entered upon the same course of religious ideas ;
the Stoics had evolved both their ethic of personality and of
human fellowship from the participation of mankind in the
Divine Reason; on the other hand, they regarded the concrete
world of the State and of Law as the obscuring of Reason by
means of selfish and confused conflict. In so far as this ethic had
achieved a relative valuation of social institutions, as they had
evolved through the struggle for existence and the endeavour to
control that conflict by ethical means, the Church appropriated
this social doctrine of the Stoics, and, through the relative valua-
tion of social institutions which this opened up, the Church came
to terms with the social life of the Ancient World.
The Christian ethic, however, was still only able to adopt an
attitude of toleration and endurance so long as the institutions
and customs, established upon a basis of this kind, in their essence
still bore the traces of the political struggle for power, of formaliz-
ing and legalizing law, of the economic competitive struggle. The
fact that the late Roman Empire already began to adopt bureau-
cratic methods, and to introduce associations like guilds, meant a
cessation of the struggle for existence with which the Christian
ethic could come into closer contact; this, however, only took
place to a very limited extent, and its practical effect was almost
negligible. Now, however, the mediaeval world, with its extremely
rudimentary idea of the State, with its feeble economic competi-
tion, in the absence of a strict and rational legal system, with its
sparse population, and in the absence of that notive for conflict
among the population due to migration on a large scale, with the
erection of semi-communistic groups of people dependent upon
personal service and mutual help, above all with the traditionalist
regulation of the protection of the food supply, and the scope for
industry and for consumption in the peaceful industrial town,
created a way of life in which the struggle for existence was very
largely regulated, and the formalistic legal standpoint was s till
largely undeveloped. The system of class and guild meant the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 309
preservation and the enfranchisement of individual initiative,
united with the strongest limitation of its incalculable results, and
with a very strong sense of personal solidarity. For the mediaeval
world there is no State, either in the ancient or in the modern
sense of the word, and therefore the specifically political lust of
power is absent. Whenever the fighting instinct flares up naturally
in wild adventures, and in private feuds, the ecclesiastical “peace
of God” tries to extinguish it, or the Church diverts it into Holy
Wars. The coarse brutality and cruelty of the Middle Ages appear
to be the result of sin and personal disposition; they do not
belong to the essence and structure of Society. These conditions
formed a social situation with which the Christian ethic could
make its peace. It was a compromise, for the struggle itself
remained ; it was only limited and regulated ; the struggle itself,
however, was regarded as “Nature”, which is transcended by
Grace. In a situation which already has done so much to limit and
suspend the conflict, Grace can take part. The classification of
Society in professional groups and guilds, together with a sparse
population, constituted that cessation of the struggle for existence
in which the natural requirements of life could still be satisfied,
and the ascent to the ethic of sanctification and brotherly love
was still possible.
With the non-political class organization of the society of the
Middle Ages the Christian ethic at last became, in theory, a
social ideal. Even yet, however, it still could not be evolved
directly from its fundamental Christian ideas, for it was the ethic
of Nature and not of Grace. Indirectly, however, it fused these
conditions with its own ideal along the following lines : it revised
the Stoic doctrine of Natural Law, which previously had served
this end and completed it in the spirit of Aristotle; it began to
lay less emphasis upon the absolute contrast between present
conditions and the rational Primitive State, and more upon the
relative reasonableness of politico-social developments; in the
actual social situation, as it was now emerging, which had been
freed from ancient paganism and its idolatry of the State, the Law
of Nature and of Reason at last attains its full development, and
the Church unites this ethic of reason with the ethic of revelation,
as the double product of the one Divine Light.
This is the explanation of the mediaeval social philosophy which
represents a Christian culture and a Christian Society, and yet
does not mean that Society is based upon and moulded by directly
Christian principles. This, however, also explains the later de-
velopment of this social philosophy. It preserved, as long as it
3io THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
was at all possible, its guild character, and at the same time its
unpolitical and economic traditional character. Here, in spite of
all its own special characteristics, Lutheranism followed entirely
in the track of Catholic social philosophy. Calvinism, on the
contrary, found conditions in Geneva and in America which
forced it to take an active part in modern social, political, and
economic conditions, and correspondingly it transformed the
whole Christian social philosophy and ethic; one main object of
the following thesis will be to present a clear picture of this
transformation within the sphere of Calvinism. Lutheranism and
Catholicism are also obliged to face the facts of modern social
development, the formation of gigantic modern States, the colossal
increase in the masses of the population, the unleashing of the
political struggle for power and of the economic competitive
struggle, with the unlimited aspirations of Capitalism within the
sphere of production, and with the release of individuals now only
connected by the equality of the law. In this situation the old
doctrine of social harmony and of the system of stages was no
longer any use. Christian “social reform 53 was now necessary.
Catholicism alone, however, took this Christian social reform
resolutely in hand, for in its ideal of a society guided by the Church
it possessed the impulse and the power for a reform of this kind,
while Lutheranism, which was bound up with the State, was
drawn helplessly into the whirlpool of the modern problems of
Society. In this situation, however, Catholic social reform,
theoretically and fundamentally, simply means a return to the
Law of Nature, and that means to the unpolitical class society
guided by the Church, in which the State has only utilitarian
tasks, while the Church hopes to lead Society back to peace
through the ideas of self-restraint and of group-solidarity which
are Involved in the “class 35 idea. In order to achieve this end
nothing is needed beyond the supremacy of the Catholic idea and
of its science of Christian Natural Law. All the advantages of
capitalist production may be incorporated into such a system
so long as they do not aim at being anything more than technical
improvements in production and distribution.
Thus the modern Catholic social policy is a capitalistic re-
generated programme of mediaeval class ideas, and it becomes
consciously “reforming 55 because the harmony between Nature
and Grace which has been disturbed can no longer itself restore
the balance, but must itself again be restored, in much more
complicated and much more difficult general conditions. Whether
in so doing this programme is so directly opposed to the trend of
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 3 1 1
modem development as the Liberal doctrine of progress believes
may here be left an open question ; when we reflect, however, that
in the present development there appear various tendencies for
the creation of new servitudes, monopolies, bureaucratic regula-
tions, and that Liberal individualism can often only present itself
as an interim period between two periods of oppression, we can
then understand how it is that Catholic social philosophers think
that their social Natural Law still holds good to-day in spite of
Liberalism, and that there is a very great need — in face of these
coming periods of oppression — for the Christian spirit of the value
of the individual in the sight of God, and of reconciliation through
love; they believe that this is all the more necessary because
modern radicalism is about to derive morality once again purely
from the struggle for existence and its self-limitations, or even to
proclaim a struggle for existence apart from all morality, which
will describe the Christian morality of love as an attack upon all
the natural and best instincts of humanity: Catholic thinkers
claim that both types of the social ethic which Catholicism has
united in an Intelligent way are on the verge of being severed in
the most harmful way ; the fear is that the first natural type will
fall a prey to pure Naturalism, and that the coming time of
oppression will become a time of wild exploitation ; it will only be
possible to reunite these types upon the basis of the Catholic
social philosophy of the religious union of mankind on the organic-
patriarchal, class-division on labour lines, propositions which are
certainly logical . 14621
These characteristics represent the universal sociological ideal
of the ecclesiastical unity of civilization, the spirit of Catholic
social doctrine. From this standpoint it is easy to prove how the
great social institutions — especially those of the Family, the State,
and Society — could be controlled by the principles of a Christian
social philosophy. In each case they were special forms of the
realization of the fundamental theory, directed towards an end
of Natural Law, which it behoved them to strive to attain as
their special contribution to Society. Their Christian character
consists in the two following elements : (1) that the union between
the individual and the community which takes place within them
is conceived and moulded in the organic and patriarchal sense;
and that (2) the primary particular aim which is founded upon
their basis in Natural Law is placed in a fixed relation to the
central religious purpose, and thus with the all-embracing in-
clusive unity of the Church and of the ecclesiastical authority.
146a See p. 426.
312 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Thomist Ethic of the Family
The social philosophy of the Church now taught an entirely
definite, logical theory of the rise and progress of social institutions
along the lines of the evolution of history. The Family is the
original and fundamental form of social life, which, according to
Aristotle and the Bible, as the monogamous family is the first
result of that Reason which forms men into communities; on
account of its reproductive function, the Family is a specially
hallowed example of what human life in fellowship ought to be,
determining personal relationships by its own example. The
community is constituted by the grouping together of families ;
for reasons which will be explained later on, St. Thomas regards
the community essentially as an urban community, alongside of
which, however, the village and farm communities are also
naturally taken into account. Above the communes was the
province, and then the Empire. The States are unlimited in
number. St. Thomas and the later Middle Ages were not con-
cerned with the question of the union of these States within the
Empire. It is, of course, obvious why the Catholic social doctrine
of the present day does not consider this question at all.
Finally, within the communes and the State there are the
groups which are united by the ties of class and profession, and
the corporations which are the supporters of social life in the
narrower sense, and in which the characteristic corporate and
class organizations of the Middle Ages are presupposed. The
whole system, however, is gathered up in the Church, with its
hierarchical organizations and its Religious Orders, which is thus,
in the last resort, governed by the Pope, and through him by
Christ Himself, the Lord of Christendom; this means that the
reins of government are really in the hands of the clergy and the
ascetics . 147
A monographic presentation of this social structure would go
far beyond the limits of the subject of this book. It would also
have to deal with many peculiarities of the Thomistic doctrine
due to the historical situation, and with its dependence upon its
authorities, for in St. Thomas we are dealing to a large extent
with purely academic theories. We will therefore emphasize only
those points of view which are of permanent value . 148
147 See p. 427.
148 For the relation between the merely academic doctrine and reference to
the actual historical realities of the day, see the instructive observations of
Maurenbrecher, who lays stress on the unconscious adaptations of Aristotle within
this theory.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 313
The Family is determined primarily by its own particular pur-
pose in Natural Law, which leads quite naturally to monogamy,
private property as the wealth of the family, and the right of
inheritance, and it consists in the production and education of
offspring — Malthusian scruples are still unknown. After all that
has been previously described, it is obvious that the family group
is of the organic and patriarchal character, whether it lives as a
small family, or as a large united family, carrying on together a
common business or industry ; it is also natural that the servants
form part of the patriarchal organization of the family. The
dignity of the individual human being is thus relatively preserved
by a whole series of customs or legal enactments ; above all, it is
maintained in the personal and ethical mutual relationship of
love. The incorporation of the Family into the central religious
purpose of the Church consists in this: so far as possible the
purely sexual side is ignored, since the aim of marriage is limited
solely to the rational reproduction of human beings, and thus of
members of the Church ; the wedded state itself becomes a symbol
of the union of Christ and the Church. In both respects the
ascetic limitation of the sex instinct is effective, since marriage
becomes solely an institution for reproduction, and a symbol of
the spiritual unity of love. In all other respects its sacramental
character brings it under the ecclesiastical marriage law, which
the Church tries to extend as far as possible in opposition to the
civil marriage law ; it is also greatly influenced by the widespread
power of the confessional. Since, moreover, the Church penetrates
the personal relationships within the family with the Christian
virtues of love, raising these above their natural union to the
religious union of love, the family becomes the original form of,
and the preparation for, all social relationships, as we have
already seen in the analysis of Patriarchalism . 149
Thomist Ethic of the State
The purpose of the State — or, as it was more correctly described
in the mediaeval sense of the word, the supreme authority — so far
as Natural Law is concerned, is the maintenance of order and the
peace of the country ; this implies that it is the duty of the Govern-
ment to create a setting within which it will be possible to carry
out the peaceful exercise of one’s vocation, the minimum at least
of a legal morality, and the ideal of a justice which is both distribu-
tive and commutative. This means that the State has to see that
each citizen has his share, according to his rank and position, in
549 See p. 427.
3 I4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the bonum commune of the State, or its material welfare, and that
in matters of exchange, treaty negotiations, and the behaviour of
individuals towards each other all takes place according to a
strict legal standard and the exact correspondence between one
service and another, between injury and compensation. Partly as
an outcome of the inward impulse of reason, and partly as a result
of intelligent arrangement, the form of organization which the
State makes its own is the patriarchal and organic, with a decided
leaning towards monarchy, in which alone the authority of the
Government and the unity of the organism, formed on the pattern
of the universe, are firmly established. The individual value of the
members of the organism is, however, always to be expressed on
the basis of the same idea of the organism. This takes place best
in a mixed constitution ; the idea that lies behind this is probably
that of the representation of the various professional classes and
their co-operation; in the mind of St. Thomas, however, this
constitution is constantly confused with that of the meeting of the
citizens in the Aristotelian city-state, and in his theory the connec-
tion with the concrete constitutional life of his day is very much
reduced ; as a result the Catholic theory is, largely, comparatively
independent of feudal tenure and the feudal system ; the relation
between the public authority and subjective public rights is
treated in a highly abstract manner. The right, and even the
duty, of revolution exists wherever a tyrannical and selfish Govern-
ment prevents the realization of the purpose of the State, on
condition, however, that such a revolution will not do more harm
than good. The detailed illustrations which St. Thomas gives
reveal a very strong dependence upon mere book-learning, and
as they are applicable neither to the mediaeval State nor to the
modern world, they may be left out of account ; his teaching on
the origin of the State, on the relation between natural, positive,
and international law, his view of the course of political history,
his relation to the legal theories and legal sources of his own day,
are merely of academic interest. The main point is that the pur-
pose of the State is confined to utilitarian welfare and legal justice,
the combination of the Divine authority of the power of the State
with the subjective rights and claims of individuals, the impor-
tance of piety, loyalty, and the patriarchal temper for the political
whole. Those are permanent features in the Catholic theory of the
State.
The State is the organization of secular and legal interests, so far
as this is necessary for a Christian society, of which, indeed, it only
constitutes one element. It is the secular side of the same society
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 315
of which the spiritual side is represented by the Church. It is thus
easy to discern the relation of the State to the central religious
purpose. This lies both in the emphasis upon the elements of love
contained in the idea of the organism and of patriarchalism,
which also make the State the preparatory school for the cultiva-
tion of a Christian disposition, and in the strict limitation of the
purpose of the State to material interests and formal righteous-
ness. Thus the conception of the political ideal as an independent
ethical end, which is characteristic of the ancient and modern
conception of the State, is not entertained ; by every theory of
the ultimate value of the religious end of life such an outlook
must be viewed with grave misgiving. This purely utilitarian
conception means, further, that the State is considered as detached
from all intellectual, religious, and higher ethical interests, which
the State only receives from the Church, and which must remain
under the direction of the Church. The State may intervene
whenever it will in the purely utilitarian side of life. Indeed, by
fixing prices and by all kinds of regulations for the protection of
the independence of each community it may have a profound
influence upon economic life ; but in the realm of the mind and
the spirit the Church must be supreme.
The relation of States to each other ought to be that of members
of the Christian family. War should only be permitted when it is
waged for a just cause, provoked by the wrongdoing of others,
and its aim ought to be the promotion of all that is good, and the
prevention of evil. Further, wars are only permitted when they
are official and ordered by princes ; private wars and feuds are
forbidden. The selfishness of nationality, moreover, does not yet
come under consideration for the international unity of Christian
civilization; the metaphysic of the Church does not yet permit
the sense of nationality to arise. In the last resort the question of
the justice of a war is decided by the supreme arbiter in all moral
matters, the Church. Finally, and above all, the incorporation in
the spiritual aim of life is expressed in the theory of the supreme
dominion of the Church, which indeed only intervenes in purely
secular matters when they are connected with spiritual interests ;
she, however, decides in a sovereign way, from her own stand-
point, whether such a connection exists or not. The spiritual
authority is the ruling and guiding spirit of the secular authority
as well, just as God rules the organism of the world even when
He leaves it to carry out its own laws. The main task here is that
everywhere the true faith, and the Canon Law which expresses it,
shall be dominant; compulsory conversions of Jews and un-
3 i 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
believers are, however, not permitted ; in cases of stubborn denial,
certainly, in the interests of the salvation of the rest, heretics are
to be excommunicated, and then given over to the power of the
State for punishment as harmful disturbers of Society. Believers
are only allowed to be subject to unbelievers so far as external
circumstances of law and authority make it necessary. Intercourse
with unbelievers is only allowed in so far as it can awaken hope
of conversion, otherwise so far as necessity commands it. Only
through baptism does one belong to the order both of the State
and of the Church, and for unbelievers baptism means naturaliza-
tion in the Christian Society.
Further, if we take into account the guidance of the royal
conscience by the ecclesiastical ideal, and remember the claim
that the duty of princes is to train nations in virtue, then the
incorporation of the State into the religious purpose, in spite of
its independence on the side of Natural Law, becomes supreme.
On the other hand, however, from a State which thus interprets
its mission there is no cause to fear that any ethical motive will
arise to prevent the absolute religious value of life from finding
its fulfilment. The only differences which can possibly arise occur
in connection with the extent and the relationship between the
secular and the spiritual powers in the share they take in the
common task; indeed, the whole vast conflict between the
Empire and the Papacy was only a difference of that kind, so far
as it was a question of theory and principle. The Thomist doctrine
here represents, clearly and honestly, the entire supremacy of the
spiritual authority, in which alone the purpose both of Reason
and of Redemption is gathered up into a coherent unity . 150
Thomist Ethic of Society and of Economics
The Thomist doctrine of actual Society is much more incom-
plete and confused ; further, it can only be regarded to a limited
extent as typical of Catholic social doctrine. Certainly its main
characteristic is typical, that is, that the whole organization of
Society is based in Natural Law upon the necessity of labour,
and upon the division of labour which that involves. In contrast
with the Early Church, in which statements of this kind only
occur incidentally, this assertion is something new. At bottom
the Primitive Church had maintained the ancient ideal of the
citizen living on his own income, looking down upon the artisan
class, and had only required for the working classes the exercise
of love and kindness; otherwise labour was only fully honoured in
150 See p. 428.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 317
the cloister. Now the mediaeval civil order is reflected in the
social ideal of work and property, and a differentiation which is
based solely upon labour. That leads (according to Natural Law)
to the organization of class-groups and corporations engaged in
the same kind of work, and also to the task of the authority which
directs the society — a task which consists in this : On the one hand,
the care of the preservation of those groups and the protection of
their food supply, and, on the other hand, the restriction of indi-
viduals to their own class and to their work, in order that the
social organization may not be disturbed.
In this expression of the doctrine of Society St. Thomas is
thinking all the time of small, self-supporting, economically unified
groups ; this the sense in which he interprets the Aristotelian
autocracy ; instead of regarding the State, politically and ethically,
as an end in itself, he places the security of a means of support
which is not disturbed by unavoidable contingencies, in which,
as far as possible, all needs are met by the economic unity itself,
and in relation to the outer world all that is to be desired is a
supplementary form of trade in which imports exceed exports.
This might lead to a radical social system, based upon personal
labour and upon a just wage, in which the most revolutionary
results could only be avoided by the recognition of the right of
inheritance based upon Natural Law in the continuance of
personality through the family . 151 This system, however, adjusts
itself quite naturally to the existing conditions, since labour is
differentiated into physical, intellectual, and governing activity,
since income must be regulated by social position, and since lack
of liberty is accepted unquestioningly as the result of the Fall. At
this point entirely different motives enter into the idea of the
organization of Society based upon the performance of labour
and the securing of a sufficient minimum of existence. Patriarch-
alism breaks through the simple fundamental theory, and the
actual spirit of this social doctrine only becomes applicable to the
agricultural labour of the peasants and the industrial work in the
towns. The domini saeculares, or the ruling aristocracy, as well as
the men of the contemplative and intellectual life, men of science
and of the Church, are considered from a very different, and
indeed a very aristocratic, point of view. Manual labour is left
to the lower orders ; this is in part an unavoidable concession to
the natural conditions of Society, 1 51a and in part it is due to the
influence of the aristocratic outlook of Aristotelianism.
151 See p. 428.
15U On these conditions of Nature see the very instructive work of Michels: Die
oligarchischen Tendenzen der Gesellschaft, Archiv . XXL
3 i8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
At this point we make the remarkable discovery, that, in contrast
to the inclination of modern Catholicism towards the rural
population and its specific Ethos, it is solely the city that St.
Thomas takes into account. In his view man is naturally a town-
dweller, and he regards rural life only as the result of misfortune
or of want; the town of which he thinks is itself strongly agrarian,
and supports its own life by a system of ordered exchange of goods
with the surrounding country which is under its rule. This
exclusive reference to the town can, however, scarcely be said to
be explained merely by the accidental reason that St. Thomas, as
an Italian and a member of a mendicant order, only knew town
life, and that as the commentator of Aristotle his horizon was
bounded by ideas of the city-state. For Aristotle prefers agriculture
to industry, whereas St. Thomas describes agriculture as “dirty
and miserable 55 . Further, St. Thomas connects the Aristotelian
contempt for industry merely with the dependent wage-earner,
while he considers those business men who take part in municipal
government to be full citizens in the Aristotelian sense of the
word, all of which is contrary to Aristotle’s meaning. All this
points rather to the circumstance which has already been em-
phasized, that it was still only the mediaeval town, with its prin-
ciples of peace, with its basis of free labour and corporate labour-
groups, with its stronger intellectual interests, and its care and
protection through its administration for everyone, which
provided a fertile soil for Christian ideals . 152 Thus, while it is
true that the limitation to the town is extremely one-sided, still
the Thomist ethic makes clear in the city-ideal typical traits of
the Catholic-Christian doctrine of Society, which also permit its
application to the universal and to the whole. In particular, it is
only from this standpoint, and not from the point of view of
feudal Society, that the claim of the social theory is developed,
that all income and all distinctions must be based upon the
personal contribution of labour. That is a question of civic
ethics, not of feudal ethics. St. Thomas, who is himself an off-
shoot of the feudal nobility, ignores feudal tenure and the feudal
system; everywhere, however, he assumes the class organization
as a matter of course. Only he does not care to illustrate this from
the feudal system. In this sense, too, the otherwise very one-
152 For the significance of the town in Christianity, which first brought in a
real Christian lay civilization with independent activity, see Uhlhorn : Liebes-
tatigkeit , //, 174, 201 , 210 ; in the town in particular did it become possible to
replace the standard of birth by the idea of the calling {325/.), likewise the
idea of mutual supplementation (404), and the beginnings of a conscious
social policy (430).
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 319
sided orientation of St. Thomas towards the city has its general
and typical significance for the Catholic social ethic. It is patri-
archal within the limits of the necessary concessions to the un-
avoidable natural conditions of power and natural distinctions,
but it is in no wise feudal. It is bourgeois in the sense of the
agrarian-industrial town, with its settled organizations of labour,
and its clear proportion between labour and income . 153
The detailed consideration of this subject is merely of academic
interest. Once again only those features of this civic idea are of
universal significance which reveal a capacity for universal appli-
cation to the whole, and which reveal the spirit of this organiza-
tion of labour and profit. On the one hand, the most important
point to observe is the positive value assigned to work, to profit,
to private property, and to the right of inheritance, coupled with
the admission that, in accordance with Natural Law, it is an
actual duty, both to oneself and to one's relations, to gain a suffi-
cient measure of property, which will ensure the maintenance of
the family according to the standards of one's class. Since this is
based upon the requirements of Natural Law, i.e. with considera-
tion for its suitability for production, the purely consumer's
standpoint of the Early Church has been discarded, and the
actual conditions of economic life are taken into consideration.
On the other hand, however, in contrast with the Capitalistic
Spirit, this is the traditionalist spirit (to use Max Weber's term)
of the whole idea of economics. It is expressed in the differ-
entiation, according to rank, of the way of life, and in the
injunction to the political authorities, through a policy of
protection of food supply and of the regulation of prices to main-
tain for each individual the income according to his rank. It is
the standpoint of the conservation of food supplies, which is
closely connected with the maintenance of permanent professional
groups, in which the same trade or calling is handed on, without
variation, from father to son, through many generations.
It is further expressed in the doctrine of prices, or the pretium
justum regulating trade and barter, which objectively corresponds
exactly to the value of the wares, and which may include in
addition only that which is necessary for the life of the trader;
this very naive economic theory does not say how such an objec-
tive value can be established ; it is in touch with actual conditions
only through the admission of certain fluctuations, and through
the incidental recognition of subjective factors in fixing a price.
This traditionalist spirit is finally expressed in the well-known
163 See p. 428,
320 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
doctrine of interest and usury, which is now based upon the
Aristotelian doctrine of the unfruitfulness of money, and which
contains a whole theory of money ; fundamentally its intention is
to obviate unjust exploitation, as well as dangerous mobilization
of trade, to hinder the whole unaccountable effect of a production
which goes on increasing indefinitely, emancipating itself from a
limited circle of customers, and also to prevent men from gaining
an income without labour. The extraordinarily complicated
details and factors of these economic doctrines must here be left
without further remark. The whole spirit of this way of thinking
on economic matters may be summed up thus: property and
gain are based upon the personal performance of work ; goods are
exchanged only when necessary, and then only according to the
principles of a just price, which does not give an undue advantage
to anyone ; (this “just price” is best regulated by the Government),
consumption is regulated ( a ) in accordance with the principle of
moderation, which only permits the natural purpose of the
maintenance of existence to be fulfilled, and ( b ) which makes
room for a generosity which takes the needs of others into account ;
at the same time great differences in social position and in fortune,
and therefore in the exercise of liberality, are fully recognized. It
may be mentioned in passing that this spirit still exists, even when
the capitalist system is recognized, with all that this involves of
the unavoidable effect of the infinite subdivisions of the processes
of labour, and the vastly enlarged sphere which has to be catered
for under modern conditions. This spirit characterizes Neo-
Thomism even at the present day. According to Ratzinger, the
Christian social ideal which will heal the wounds of the world is
still composed of the following elements : emphasis upon a certain
amount of property for every member of Society ; the means of
gaining a living in accordance with one’s social position; restraint
and the limitation of production to the actual stimulus of the
economic production of goods which are absolutely necessary; the
renunciation of private gain arising out of speculation as a purely
private undertaking ; the closest possible connection between the
possession of capital and labour; a willingness on the part of the
owners of property and capital to make such a combination
possible, even, when possible, at the cost of a personal sacrifice of
chances of making money in association with others, or of their
share in profits; and finally, alongside of these psychological
elements, the enforcement of vigorous State regulations in order to
carry through and maintain a social constitution of that kind . 154
164 See p. 428.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 32 1
This Social Ideal controlled
by the Church
All this, however, refers merely to the ideal of Society from the
point of view of Natural Law. Beyond that there is the ultimate
religious purpose. The Christian connection with this ideal
consists primarily in this: that the self-restraint, the sacrificial
spirit, and all the traditionalism which are necessary if this
system of Natural Law is to be maintained, can only really be
produced with the aid of the Christian virtues of love, humility,
and hope — a hope which is anchored in the real values of the
future life. The heroic renunciations of monasticism were meant
to strengthen this spirit by their example, and to preserve it for
Society as the indispensable basis even of the natural forms of life . 1543
Further, in addition to the positive value of work as the means
of existence, it also appears as a beneficial method of asceticism,
which destroys carnal ideas and prevents the distraction caused
by sensual pleasure. As a result of the Fall, it serves also as an
exhortation to humility. Labour is thus both a penalty and a
means of salvation. Rightly understood, and exercised in this
spirit, it is the means for the preservation of the physical existence
of Christian Society, and to this extent, as well as property, it has
been appointed by God as the necessary presupposition for the
higher values of life. From the highest point of view, however,
work does not merely preserve Christian society, but it preserves
love, since commercial profits make it possible to support churches
and monasteries, partly by means of fixed taxes, partly by volun-
tary gifts, since all that is not necessary for the maintenance of
existence is placed at the disposal of brotherly love and charity.
When poverty and distress require it, property is again regarded
as belonging to the whole community; private property had only
been permitted to develop from motives of convenience. Thus
even the theft of St. Crispin is justified. At this point the familiar
ideas of the Early Church reappear.
The new social doctrine, however, pours a great deal of water
into the wine of the radical ethic of love. According to this ideal,
not only does the duty of giving away only begin when possessions
have passed the minimum limit needed for existence (which,
indeed, varies very much according to social position), but it
teaches that it is a direct duty first of all to ensure one’s own
maintenance, and that it is not allowable to endanger the founda-
tions of the economic existence of the family by a generosity which
154a g ee 430*
X
VOL. I
322 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURGHES
threatens its own existence. For a man who himself belonged to
a Mendicant Order, this was certainly neither worldliness nor
legalism, but consideration for the conditions of economic pros-
perity. For those who renounce the world St. Thomas makes it
very clear indeed that it is absolutely necessary for them to make
an entire renunciation of all property, and he defends this position
with great vigour against the ancient Orders. So far as life in the
world is concerned, however, it is characteristic of St. Thomas
that he recognizes that such a modification of the commandment
of love is unavoidable ; this recognition, like so much else, is a
sign that we are in an entirely different world from that of the
Early Church, that we now have before us a permanent Christian
order of society, with its incorporation and sanctification of the
natural basis of life. Charity is no longer the only social idea,
which throws a bridge across the gulf between the equality of the
Primitive State and the coming equality of love in heavenly bliss,
thus bridging a world steeped in sin and destined to pass away . 155
The main features of the mediaeval social philosophy are there-
fore clear, even in questions of detailed application. Both in its
exclusiveness and in its comprehensiveness, as well as in its positive
incorporation within the world, it stands out in clear relief against
the indefinite, incomplete social doctrine of the Primitive Church,
which never attained a clear idea of its attitude towards the
world. In this, however, it also reveals its marked difference from
the sociological idea of the Gospel. The Pegasus of absolute
religious individualism and of the radical ethic of love is yoked
to the plough of the social order, makes its fruitful furrows in a
soil which is comparatively easy to cultivate, and only finally
aspires after the regions of the supersensual life and of eternity.
The new humanity of religious personality and of the fellowship
of love in God has made a compromise with the old humanity
of the struggle for existence, of force, of law, of war, and of violence,
with the natural basis of existence . 156
The compromise only became possible within the sphere of the
mediaeval order of Society, which rose from the rejuvenescence of
the whole social order in a semi-civilized economic system based
upon agriculture, which to the earliest, very moderate beginnings
of the higher political and economic differentiation and unification,
and, in a decided preponderance of the personal element over the
156 For details see Maurenbrecher ; also von Eicken , 488-547/., and the work of
Funk, which has already been mentioned ; further, Ratzinger: Volkswirtschaft ,
and there is a great deal of material in Uhlhom: Liebestatigkeit, IL
156 See p. 430.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 323
abstract and rationalistic elements, offered to the religions ethic
easily accessible points of approach . 157 The theory of the Church,
therefore, stabilized this situation by its conception of Christian
Natural Law, which, again, the Church anchored firmly both in
its scientific metaphysics and in its doctrine of revelation.
This theory is neither an ideology which annihilates and
ignores the natural basis of life, nor is it a system of social reform
which transforms and Christianizes the natural basis of life. This
mediaeval social philosophy is a combination of faith in Providence
and Rationalism, which regards the natural basis administered
by reason as naturally ordained for the religious end : the actual
practical conditions which made it temporarily possible for the
Church to accept them in this way are transformed into an eternal
Natural Law in the architectonic-historical-development meaning
of this conception, and in so doing, for this purpose, in contrast
with their real nature, they were still more considerably idealized.
It is an open question whether, in reality, these are the only
conditions which allow the Christian idea to obtain a tolerably
possible realization. In any case, after these social doctrines had
been destroyed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
Catholic Church again returned to these theories in the period
of the Counter Reformation. After a further shattering experience
in the eighteenth century the Church took them up afresh with
some new adjustments, particularly in the direction of democracy,
Capitalism, and the order of a modern State Church. To what a
great extent these theories — at least in their main features, in the
combination of Natural Law with morality and grace to form a
united Christian Society — represent the only system of a Christian
doctrine of Society which had been evolved until that time appears
finally and pre-eminently in the fact that even Protestantism — the
new form of the Christian idea which arose out of the religious
crisis of the sixteenth century — was only able to establish a doctrine
of society by reshaping and continuing this Catholic social
philosophy. The social philosophy of Protestantism is also based
upon the idea of Natural Law.
Catholic Social Philosophy and its
Connection with History in general
Now, however, as we approach the end of this section, we must
inquire, on the other hand, to what extent the Christian ideal
157 This has also been pointed out by Uklhorn , , 77 , 439 f, but also the darker
side (p. 441) ; it consists in this, that as soon as the “natural order’ 5 failed,
Society faced the social crises without any other guidance.
324 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
determined the social development of the Middle Ages after it had
itself been effectively and even decisively influenced in its develop-
ment of a social philosophy by the actual conditions of the life
of the day.
This question is extraordinarily difficult and complicated, and
in reply I can only offer some very modest suggestions. Yet, in
spite of that, for the sake of completeness, they must be expressed
with that brevity which befits mere suggestions. In so doing I do
not take into account the well-known general civilizing influence
of the Church, which, however, has an important sociological
aspect. The Church was the teacher of art and science, of technical
knowledge and organization, of administration and law ; she was
the continuation of the ancient culture. Here we are concerned
solely with actual social influences, and only with those which
are the direct result of intrinsically Christian religious ideas.
First of all, it seems to me unquestionable that the Church did
succeed in basing Society upon the Christian conception of the
family — that combination of the elements of authority with those
of personality and individualism. To what extent the modification
of the Patriarchalism of the ancient Germanic kind, and also of
that of Roman law, may have been due to the cessation of the
habit of reckoning everything in terms of military organization,
the interest of the families in the destiny of the women who marry
out of the tribe and of their children, the economic necessity of a
settlement and a legal definition of the law regarding the wife’s
property — the strongest factor in effecting the intimacy and
individual character of the family relationships was the ideal of
the Church, with its emphasis upon the value of personality and
upon love ; at the same time, however, we cannot ignore the fact
that the Church did help to establish the authority of the house-
father. This Christian conception of the family, united with
Jewish and Stoic ideas, still constitutes the foundation pillar of
our social order. All reforms and emancipations in this sphere are
faced by the fundamental question of how far they can move
within the framework of this conception, or to what extent they
desire to open up the future land of a completely new order of
Society. The immense problem of sex ethics is here solved in a
quite definite sense, which gave to the European peoples one of
their chief characteristics, and which, to a certain degree, modern
individualism knows how to assimilate; this ethic, however, is
once more seriously menaced by modem economic conditions . 158
158 Gf. Marianne Weber: Ehefrau und Mutters PP* 200-278; Schmoller: Grundriss,
/, 244-253 ; also the article by Gothein which has already been mentioned. '
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 325
Secondly, it seems to me a fact of the highest importance that,
in the transition from the semi-anarchist feudal states and city-
federations to the uniform bureaucratic modern sovereign State,
the Church was an example of the only sovereign institution
which governed through a vast body of officials, supported by
unconditional obedience, and using a formal written law. Indeed,
one might even say that the modern conception of the State,
in which the will of the individual is united with a collective will
which can be legally represented, which at the same time secures
the inviolable personal rights of the individual, found its first
method of orientation in the Corpus mysticum of the Church, and
through this it is distinguished from the ancient conception of the
State, in which the State is abstractly bound to observe the laws,
and in which it was impossible to keep a clear line of demarcation
between the collective will and the will of the individual. At least
all these modern conceptions of the law of the State have grown
out of the elements of a philosophy of the State which was bound
up with the Church, and directed towards the collective will of
the Corpus mysticum . 159
Thirdly, however, and further, we may well believe that the
whole of social thought and feeling in general has been deeply
influenced by the idea of an objective fellowship with absolute
values and truths. The historico-philosophical idea of an “objec-
tive spirit” is a transformation of the ecclesiastical unity of life,
without the ecclesiastical means of fellowship. The Platonist State
and Stoic cosmopolitanism were still only the preliminary condi-
tion for this idea. It was only the Church which practically effected
a combination which first of all united the fellowship in absolute
spiritual values, and through the very share of the individual in
these personal values gave to the individual his own independent
value. In this particular, Liberalism perpetuates in a secular form
an idea which had first been realized by the Church, and it is
very doubtful how far this ideal can be maintained against natural-
istic reactions without any religious support at all. It is one of the
chief arguments in Catholic apologetic that it is precisely the
idealistic and humane demands of Liberalism which would find
in the Church their strongest support. That there is a certain
connection cannot be denied, even though at that time, and still
139 This is the main idea of Gierke , III; also of J. jV*. Figgis: From Gerson to
Grotius, which attributes the development of modern political thought to the
idea of the Christian Society which is represented variously in Catholicism,
Lutheranism, and Calvinism, with at the same time the influence of the
Renaissance behind it all.
326 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
more to-day, the price of the support of the Church is a great
loss of that idealistic individualism and of the mobility of its
spiritual content.
Fourthly, we may say that the increasing modification of
slavery, the weakening of the system of serfdom, the development
of civic freedom out of the subject peoples collected in the towns,
and thus the tendency towards the free industry of the guilds,
together with the whole concentration of a nascent Capitalism on
the organization of free labour, were at least partly conditioned
by the religious ideal of personality and its practical realization
in law. In contrast to the Capitalism of the ancient world, the
newer Capitalism, with an intensive rural economy, cannot think
in terms of slave plantations, of capital investments in State
farms ; neither is it mainly occupied with the overseas trade which
is necessitated by a coast civilization. Rather it is obliged to follow
trade and industry within the interior of the country; for this
purpose it can only use free labour which can be educated to do
work of good quality and may be vitalized by considerations of
self-interest. Thus, from the outset, the newer Capitalism is in a
totally different position from that of the ancient world ; at the
same time we may consider that the entirely new tendency of
Capitalism towards free labour, and the specifically modern social
problem of the relation of free labour (which has no capital) to
rational-calculating capital, are affected by the ethical demand
for the freedom of the individual.
The possibility that the new civilization with its exalted aspira-
tions might fall back into a social system based on slave labour —
a possibility which in itself was always present, and which was
practically realized in America — was not excluded, however,
merely by the political and economic structure which laid down
the lines on which the new Capitalism was to move ; rather it was
excluded by the fact that this structure itself (alongside of the
main reason, namely the influence of the constitution which
certainly was endeavouring to secure the economic and finally,
also, the legal independence of the unfree) was still in some way
or another also conditioned by the work of the Church as she
gained the rights of personality for the unfree. The Church never
set this up as a legal demand, but in this connection here it always
took into account positive law and the effects of the Fall ; this,
too, was the attitude of the Church right through the Middle
Ages towards the slavery which lasted throughout that period.
Indirectly, however, and from within outwards, and particularly
in securing the position of the family, it seems very probable that
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 327
Catholic social philosophy was at least a contributory cause.
Moreover, the freedom of the towns and the individualizing of
the religious life are obviously linked together as influences which
mutually affect each other. To this extent the unique character of
modern economic development is still derived from the freedom
and the rights of man which the Church proclaimed . 160
The fact that the results of this Christian social philosophy have
had a very dualistic effect is something which this phenomenon
has in common with other great historical formations. In any
case, Christian thought, down to the present day, has been
engaged in the endeavour to remove or to limit the unfavourable
results, and at the present time it sees in that one of its main
tasks. Catholic social doctrine to-day. In the first place, works
precisely along the same lines, and it is only the result of its whole
development if— in the attempt to solve these difficult questions
which have grown up with and out of its own system of thought —
it wavers between the older methods of Patriarchalism and
modern methods of an individualistic democratic order of labour ;
like the whole situation itself, both methods have grown, to a
great extent, out of its own development and its own history.
Finally, two general points of view ought not to be overlooked.
The social philosophy of the Catholic Church is based upon the
idea of the ecclesiastical unity of civilization, and upon the
victory of the universal Church over the territorial churches,
from which it had taken over the conception of the penetration
of the sacred and the secular ; over these churches, however, it
set up its new ecclesiastical culture and science as a centralizing
system of Church law and Church policy. Emphasis has been laid,
quite rightly, on the fact that it is only to this circumstance that
we owe the unity of European civilization and its cultural founda-
tions in the ancient world and in Christendom. The uniformity
of Western civilization was preceded by the uniformity of the
Church, and was provided by her with her own means of sub-
sistence . 161 On the other hand, however, the education of the
nations of Europe by the powerful unity of the Church means,
also, an increasing inwardness and subjectivity of the emotional
life, a personalizing of all the relationships of life, which finds its
earliest magnificent expression in the time of the Religious Orders
in the early Middle Ages, and then rises to a height in the city
civilization and in the new Orders which corresponded to that,
upon which, however, the unity of the Church was finally
shattered.
160 See p» 430. 161 See Ranke; Die Romanisch-germanischen Volker , Einleilung.
328 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Whatever the Ancient World and the Renaissance may have
done for the intensification of individuality, Christianity, which,
indeed, always included within itself both Stoicism and Neo-
Platonism, has always been the strongest influence of all, and
the really permanent attainment of individualism was due to a
religious, and not to a secular movement, to the Reformation and
not to the Renaissance.
If out of the natural anarchistic individualism of uncivilized
humanity there develops the spiritual individualism of the
autonomous personality, filled with objective values, and there-
fore representing an actual value of its own, then this ideal of
modern sociological thought — at the same time, however, with
all the difficulties which it contains — is an effect, not wholly, it
is true, but still very largely, of mediaeval Christianity. Even as
the fellowship idea of the Objective spirit 55 is closely connected
with the mediaeval period, so also is the individual idea of
“personality 55 .
In the individualistic sect-movements, and, above all, in the
Reformation, we shall see this idea break through its ecclesiastical
Catholic shell, and more or less renounce the Catholic solution of
the problems which it contains . 162
It is, however, amazingly interesting to observe, that, with this
emergence of religious individualism, and with this destruction
of the old sociological organism of the sacramental and sacer-
dotal Church, there arises also anew for the renewed Christian
individualism the whole struggle for a sociological organization
of its own and for a relation to social conditions ; and further,
to note how by the removal of the incrustations of the Primitive
Church and of the mediaeval hierarchical Church the former task
is made extraordinarily difficult, while the latter finally has only
become capable of solution by continuing and transforming in its
main features the mediaeval solution of the problem.
9. THE ABSOLUTE LAW OF GOD AND OF NATURE,
AND THE SECTS
Reappearance of the Sect-movement
Before we can proceed to describe the great new developments
of the Reformation we must consider the radical complementary
162 See Thode : Franz von Assisi; Neumann: Byzantinische Kultur und Renaissance -
kultur; Brandi : Das Werden der Renaissance ; 1908; Arnold Berger: Die Kulturaufgaben
der Reformation, 1899.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 329
phenomenon, which existed alongside of both the Primitive
Church and the relatively conservative social theory of mediaeval
Christianity, with its recognition and incorporation of the life of
the world.
The tendency towards conservatism was prepared by Paulinism,
and it was continued in the combination of radical and conserva-
tive elements which was achieved in the Thomist social doctrine,
in the form of a structure of Christian civilization upon architec-
tonic-evolutionary-historical lines. The opportunity for this was
provided by the new social situation which arose in the Middle
Ages, while the Neo-Platonic doctrine of the graduated organized
structure of the Spirit provided the theoretical method. In this
system for the construction of secular social institutions the
Stoic-Patristic theory of the Lex natiuae was continued, but with
it was mingled the politics and economics of Aristotle. Under these
influences Paulinism was pushed far into the background. In-
equality, State development, private property, and the rise of a
dominant caste do not belong merely to the relative Natural Law
of fallen human nature, but they are rooted already in the Natural
Law, and in the Primitive State in general ; it is only their par-
ticular compulsory form, and the pain which they involve, which
they owe simply to the relative Natural Law of fallen humanity.
Even alongside of Paulinism, however, there already existed a
radicalism which was indifferent and even hostile to the world;
it appeared in the form of the love-communism of the Primitive
Church and in the Chiliast- Apocalyptic rejection of the world;
similarly, Radicalism existed alongside of the social development
of the Early Church which carried on the Pauline tradition in
the Montanist and Donatist sects, and, above all, in monasticism.
Under its influence, and with the aid of the rationalistic-individu-
alistic Stoic doctrine of Natural Law, the great Fathers of the
fourth century also proclaimed a Natural Law of communism,
freedom and equality, while Augustine proclaimed an aristocratic
Natural Law of the dominion of goodness.
The result of the first main section of this book was to bring out
the fact that from the very beginning the social doctrines of the
Christian Church had a dualistic tendency which caused them
to flow in two channels. The strict law of the Scriptures, the radical
Law of Nature, monasticism, and the theological theory of the
Primitive State there revealed themselves as motives and expres-
sions of a second radical tendency which accompanied the
compromise of the Church . 1623
ie2a See above, pp, 161-164.
330 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
In the central period of the Middle Ages, however, this second
tendency broke forth afresh with extraordinary power. This took
place precisely at the moment when the ecclesiastical unity of
civilization and its inclusive attitude towards the world had
become intellectually complete in Thomism.
In opposition to the modifications of the moral law of Jesus
which compromised with the world-order, there arose the strict
radicalism of the ethic of the Gospel, wholly directed towards
self-conquest and brotherly love; it appealed both to the Divine
Law of the Gospel and to the Natural Law of the Primitive State,
which also was considered to have had no other ideal save that
of holiness and generous love, an ideal which left no room for
secular political and economic inequalities and cruelty. Since the
Church, in its organization of a universal Christian society and
of civilization, allowed no scope for these radical ideas, or, rather,
was only able to tolerate them in the form of a special class,
serving her own purposes, i.e. in monasticism, these ideals were
forced to find a way of development alongside of the Church. The
contrast between the radical law of the Scriptures and the way of
life of genuine Christians which was measured by this standard,
and the ecclesiastical ethic and social doctrine, with its relative
and inclusive tendency, led to the formation of sects. Thus it was
that the development of the sects alongside of the social doctrine
of Thomism, which is the classic epitome of the ecclesiastical
ethic, became the second classic form of the social doctrine of
Christianity. Thus that element which could not be completely
expressed within the ecclesiastical unity of civilization and of
Society made a place for itself within the sects, whence it had a
reflex influence upon the Church itself.
It is not my purpose at this point to present in detail the history
of this development of the sects, which, to some extent, is still
most obscure and complicated. This must be left to the detailed
researches of ecclesiastical and social historians . 163 But it is abso-
lutely necessary to make clear the general significance of this
sect-movement for Christian social doctrine. For this adds a new
feature to the presentation of these doctrines, a feature which had
been latent from the very beginning, but which only now emerges
clearly. When this element is carried over into the modern
world it becomes still more important, for only then do we
gain a conclusive insight into the sociological character of
Christianity.
163 See p. 431.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 331
Sect-type and Church-type contrasted
The importance of this element is the fact that at this point,
alongside of the Church-type produced by Christianity in its
sociological process of self-development, there appears the new
type of the sect.
At the outset the actual differences are quite clear. The Church
is that type of organization which is overwhelmingly conservative,
which to a certain extent accepts the secular order, and dominates
the masses; in principle, therefore, it is universal, i.e. it desires to
cover the whole life of humanity. The sects, on the other hand,
are comparatively small groups; they aspire after personal
inward perfection, and they aim at a direct personal fellowship
between the members of each group. From the very beginning,
therefore, they are forced to organize themselves in small groups,
and to renounce the idea of dominating the world. Their attitude
towards the world, the State, and Society may be indifferent,
tolerant, or hostile, since they have no desire to control and
incorporate these forms of social life ; on the contrary, they tend
to avoid them ; their aim is usually either to tolerate their presence
alongside of their own body, or even to replace these social insti-
tutions by their own society.
Further, both types are in close connection with the actual
situation and with the development of Society. The fully devel-
oped Church, however, utilizes the State and the ruling classes,
and weaves these elements into her own life ; she then becomes an
integral part of the existing social order; from this standpoint,
then, the Church both stabilizes and determines the social order;
in so doing, however, she becomes dependent upon the upper
classes, and upon their development. The sects, on the other
hand, are connected with the lower classes, or at least with
those elements in Society which are opposed to the State and to
Society; they work upwards from below, and not downwards
from above.
Finally, too, both types vary a good deal in their attitude
towards the supernatural and transcendent element in Christ-
ianity, and also in their view of its system of asceticism. The Church
relates the whole of the secular order as a means and a preparation
to the supernatural aim of life, and it incorporates genuine
asceticism into its structure as one element in this preparation, all
under the very definite direction of the Church. The sects refer
their members directly to the supernatural aim of life, and In
them the individualistic, directly religious character of asceticism,
332 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
as a means of union with God, is developed more strongly and
fully; the attitude of opposition to the world and its powers,
to which the secularized Church now also belongs, tends to
develop a theoretical and general asceticism. It must, however,
be admitted that asceticism in the Church, and in ecclesiastical
monasticism, has a different meaning from that of the renunciation
of or hostility to the world which characterizes the asceticism of
the sects.
The asceticism of the Church is a method of acquiring virtue,
and a special high watermark of religious achievement, connected
chiefly with the repression of the senses, or expressing itself in
special achievements of a peculiar character ; otherwise, however,
it presupposes the life of the world as the general background,
and the contrast of an average morality which is on relatively
good terms with the world. Along these lines, therefore, ecclesias-
tical asceticism is connected with the asceticism of the redemption
cults of late antiquity, and with the detachment required for the
contemplative life; in any case, it is connected with a moral
dualism.
The asceticism of the sects, on the other hand, is merely the
simple principle of detachment from the world, and is expressed
in the refusal to use the law, to swear in a court of justice, to own
property, to exercise dominion over others, or to take part in
war. The sects take the Sermon on the Mount as their ideal;
they lay stress on the simple but radical opposition of the Kingdom
of God to all secular interests and institutions. They practise
renunciation only as a means of charity, as the basis of a thorough-
going communism of love, and, since their rules are equally binding
upon all, they do not encourage extravagant and heroic deeds,
nor the vicarious heroism of some to make up for the worldliness
and average morality of others. The ascetic ideal of the sects
consists simply in opposition to the world and to its social institu-
tions, but it is not opposition to the sense-life, nor to the average
life of humanity. It is therefore only related with the asceticism of
monasticism in so far as the latter also creates special conditions,
within which it is possible to lead a life according to the Sermon
on the Mount, and in harmony with the ideal of the communism
of love. In the main, however, the ascetic ideal of the sects is
fundamentally different from that of monasticism, in so far as the
latter implies emphasis upon the mortification of the senses, and
upon works of supererogation in poverty and obedience for their
own sake. In all things the ideal of the sects is essentially not one
which aims at the destruction of the sense life and of natural
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 333
self-feeling, but a union in love which is not affected by the social
inequalities and struggles of the world. 163a
All these differences which actually existed between the late
Mediaeval Church and the sects, must have had their foundation
in some way or another within the interior structure of the twofold
sociological edifice . 164 If, then, in reality both types claim, and
rightly claim, a relationship with the Primitive Church, it is
clear that the final cause for this dualistic development must lie
within primitive Christianity itself Once this point becomes
clear, therefore, it will also shed light upon the whole problem
of the sociological understanding of Christianity in general.
Since it is only at this point that the difference between the two
elements emerges very clearly as a permanent difference, only
now have we reached the stage at which it can be discussed. It is
also very important to understand this question thoroughly at
this stage, since it explains the later developments of Church
History, in which the sect stands out ever more clearly alongside
of the Church. In the whole previous development of the Church
this question was less vital, for during the early centuries the
Church itself fluctuated a great deal between the sect and the
Church-type; indeed, it only achieved the development of the
Church-type with the development of sacerdotal and sacramental
doctrine ; precisely for that reason, in its process of development
up to this time, the Church had only witnessed a sect development
alongside of itself to a small extent, and the differences between
them and the Church were still not clear. The problem first appears
clearly in the opposition between the sacramental-hierarchical
Church conception of Augustine and the Donatists. But with
the disappearance of African Christianity this opposition also
disappeared, and it only reappeared in a decisive form after the
completion of the idea of the Church in the Gregorian church
reform.
The word “sect”, however, gives an erroneous impression.
Originally the word was used in a polemical and apologetic sense,
and it was used to describe groups which separated themselves
from the official Church, while they retained certain fundamental
elements of Christian thought; by the very fact, however, that
they were outside the corporate life of the ecclesiastical tradition —
a position, moreover, which was usually forced upon them —
they were regarded as inferior side-issues, one-sided phenomena,
exaggerations or abbreviations of ecclesiastical Christianity. That
is, naturally, solely the viewpoint of the dominant churches, based
iesa g ee p # 432. 164 See p. 433.
334 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
on the belief that the ecclesiastical type alone has any right to
exist. Ecclesiastical law within the modern State definitely denotes
as “sects” those religious groups which exist alongside of the
official privileged State Churches, by law established, groups
which the State either does not recognize at all, or, if it does
recognize them, grants them fewer rights and privileges than the
official State Churches. Such a conception, however, confuses the
actual issue. Very often in the so-called “sects” it is precisely the
essential elements of the Gospel which are fully expressed ; they
themselves always appeal to the Gospel and to Primitive Christ-
ianity, and accuse the Church of having fallen away from its ideal ;
these impulses are always those which have been either suppressed
or undeveloped in the official churches, of course for good and
characteristic reasons, which again are not taken into account by
the passionate party polemics of the sects. There can, however, be
no doubt about the actual fact : the sects, with their greater inde-
pendence of the world, and their continual emphasis upon the
original ideals of Christianity, often represent in a very direct and
characteristic way the essential fundamental ideas of Christianity ;
to a very great extent they are a most important factor in the
study of the development of the sociological consequences of
Christian thought. This statement is proved conclusively by all
those who make a close study of the sect movements, which were
especially numerous in the latter mediaeval period — movements
which played their part in the general disintegration of the
mediaeval social order. This comes out very clearly in the great
works of Sebastian Franck, and especially of Gottfried Arnold,
which were written later in defence of the sects.,
The main stream of Christian development, however, flows
along the channel prepared by the Church-type. The reason for
this is clear : the Church-type represents the longing for a universal
all-embracing ideal, the desire to control great masses of men,
and therefore the urge to dominate the world and civilization in
general. Paulinism, in spite of its strongly individualistic and
“enthusiastic” features, had already led the way along this line:
it desired to conquer the world for Christ ; it came to terms with
the order of the State by interpreting it as an institution ordained
and permitted by God; it accepted the existing order with its
professions and its habits and customs. The only union it desired
was that which arose out of a common share in the energy of
grace which the Body of Christ contained ; ouUof this union the
new life ought to spring up naturally from within through the
power of the Holy Spirit, thus preparing the way for the speedy
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 33^
coming of the Kingdom of God, as the real universal end of all
things. The more that Christendom renounced the life of this
supernatural and eschatological fulfilment of its universal ideal,
and tried to achieve this end by missionary effort and organiza-
tion, the more was it forced to make its Divine and Christian
character independent of the subjective character and service of
believers ; henceforth it sought to concentrate all its emphasis upon
the objective possession of religious truth and religious power,
which were contained in the tradition of Christ, and in the Divine
guidance of the Church which fills and penetrates the whole
Body. From this objective basis subjective energies could ever
flow forth afresh, exerting a renewing influence, but the objective
basis did not coincide with these results. Only thus was it possible
to have a popular Church at all, and it was only thus that the
relative acceptance of the world, the State, of Society, and of the
existing culture, which this required, did no harm to the objective
foundation. The Divine nature of the Church was retained in its
objective basis, and from this centre there welled up continually
fresh streams of vital spiritual force. It was the aim of the leaders
of the Church to render this basis as objective as possible, by
means of tradition, priesthood, and sacrament; to secure in it,
objectively, the sociological point of contact; if that were once
firmly established the subjective influence of the Church was
considered secure; it was only in detail that it could not be
controlled. In this way the fundamental religious sense of possess-
ing something Divinely “given 55 and “redeeming 55 was ensured,
while the universalizing tendency was also made effective, since
it established the Church, the organ of Divine grace, in the supreme
position of power. When to that was added the Sacrament of
Penance, the power of spiritual direction, the law against heretics,
and the general supervision of the faith, the Church was then
able to gain an inward dominion over the hearts of men.
Under these circumstances, however, the Church found it
impossible to avoid making a compromise with the State, with
the social order, and with economic conditions, and the Thomist
doctrine worked this out in a very able, comprehensive theory,
which vigorously maintained the ultimate supernatural orienta-
tion of life. In all this it is claimed that the whole is derived, quite
logically, from the Gospel ; it is clear that this point of view became
possible as soon as the Gospel was conceived as a universal way of
life, offering redemption to all, whose influence radiates from the
knowledge given by the Gospel, coupled with the assurance of
salvation given by the Church. It was precisely the development of
336 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
an objective sociological point of reference, its establishment on
a stable basis, and its endeavour to go forward from that point to
organize the conquest of the world, which led to this development.
It is, however, equally obvious that in so doing the radical
individualism of the Gospel, with its urge towards the utmost
personal achievement, its radical fellowship of love, uniting all
in the most personal centre of life, with its heroic indifference
towards the world, the State and civilization, with its mistrust
of the spiritual danger of distraction and error inherent in the
possession of or the desire for great possessions, has been given a
secondary place, or even given up altogether ; these features now
appear as mere factors within the system; they are no longer
ruling principles.
It was precisely this aspect of the Gospel, however, which the
sects developed still farther, or, rather, it was this aspect which
they were continually re-emphasizing and bringing into fresh
prominence. In general, the following are their characteristic
features : lay Christianity, personal achievement in ethics and in
religion, the radical fellowship of love, religious equality and
brotherly love, indifference towards the authority of the State
and the ruling classes, dislike of technical law and of the oath, the
separation of the religious life from the economic struggle by
means of the ideal of poverty and frugality, or occasionally in a
charity which becomes communism, the directness of the personal
religious relationship, criticism of official spiritual guides and
theologians, the appeal to the New Testament and to the Primitive
Church. The sociological point of contact, which here forms the
starting-point for the growth of the religious community, differs
clearly from that upon which the Church has been formed.
Whereas the Church assumes the objective concrete holiness of
the sacerdotal office, of Apostolic Succession, of the Depositum
jidei and of the sacraments, and appeals to the extension of the
Incarnation which takes place permanently through the priest-
hood, the sect, on the other hand, appeals to the ever new common
performance of the moral demands, which, at bottom, are founded
only upon the Law and the Example of Christ. In this, it must be
admitted that they are in direct contact with the Teaching of
Jesus. Consciously or unconsciously, therefore, this implies a
different attitude to the early history of Christianity, and a
different conception of Christian doctrine. Scripture history and
the history of the Primitive Church are permanent ideals, to be
accepted in their literal sense, not the starting-point, historically
limited and defined, for the development of the Church. Christ is
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 33 7
not the God-Man, eternally at work within the Church, leading
it into all Truth, but He is the direct Head of the Church, binding
the Church to Himself through His Law in the Scriptures. On the
one hand, there is development and compromise, on the other
literal obedience and radicalism.
It is this point of view, however, which makes the sects in-
capable of forming large mass organizations, and limits their
development to small groups, united on a basis of personal
intimacy ; it is also responsible for the necessity for a constant
renewal of the ideal, their lack of continuity, their pronounced
individualism, and their affinity with all the oppressed and
idealistic groups within the lower classes. These also are the groups
in which an ardent desire for the improvement of their lot goes
hand in hand with a complete -ignorance of the complicated
conditions of life, in which therefore an idealistic orthodoxy finds
no difficulty in expecting to see the world transformed by the
purely moral principles oflove. In this way the sects gained on the
side of intensity in Christian life, but they lost in the spirit of
universalism, since they felt obliged to consider the Church as
degenerate, and they did not believe that the world could be
conquered by human power and effort; that is why they were
always forced to adopt eschatological views. On the side of
personal Christian piety they score, and they are in closer touch
with the radical individualism of the Gospel, but they lose spon-
taneity and the spirit of grateful surrender to the Divine revelation
of grace ; they look upon the New Testament as the Law of God,
and, in their active realization of personal fellowship in love,
they tend towards legalism and an emphasis upon “good works 55 .
They gain in specific Christian piety, but they lose spiritual
breadth and the power to be receptive, and they thus revise the
whole vast process of assimilation which the Church had com-
pleted, and which she was able to complete because she had
placed personal Christian piety upon an objective basis. The
Church emphasizes the idea of Grace and makes it objective ; the
sect emphasizes and realizes the idea of subjective holiness. In
the Scriptures the Church adheres to the source of redemption,
whereas the sect adheres to the Law of God and of Christ.
Although this description of the sect-type represents in the
main its prevailing sociological characteristics, the distinctive
significance of the sect-type contrasted with the Church-type still
has a good concrete basis. (There is no need to consider here the
particular groups which were founded purely upon dogma ; they
were indeed rare, and the pantheistic philosophical sects of the
VOL. 1 Y
338 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Middle Ages merge almost imperceptibly into sects of the practical
religious kind. 165 ) In reality, the sects are essentially different from
the Church and the churches. The word “sect”, however, does
not mean that these movements are undeveloped expressions of
the Church-type ; it stands for an independent sociological type
of Christian thought.
The essence of the Church is its objective institutional character.
The individual is born into it, and through infant baptism he
comes under its miraculous Influence. The priesthood and the
hierarchy, which hold the keys to the tradition of the Church, to
sacramental grace and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, represent the
objective treasury of grace, even when the individual priest may
happen to be unworthy ; this Divine treasure only needs to be set
always upon the lampstand .and made effective through the
sacraments, and it will inevitably do its work by virtue of the
miraculous power which the Church contains. The Church means
the eternal existence of the God-Man; it is the extension of the
Incarnation, the objective organization of miraculous power, from
which, by means of the Divine Providential government of the
world, subjective results will appear quite naturally. From this
point of view compromise with the world, and the connection
with the preparatory stages and dispositions which it contained,
was possible ; for In spite of all individual inadequacy the institu-
tion remains holy and Divine, and it contains the promise of its
capacity to overcome the world by means of the miraculous power
which dwells within it. Universalism, however, also only becomes
possible on the basis of this compromise; it means an actual
domination of the institution as such, and a believing confidence
in its invincible power of inward influence. Personal effort and
service, however fully they may be emphasized, even when they
go to the limits of extreme legalism, are still only secondary ; the
main thing is the objective possession of grace and its universally
recognized dominion; to everything else these words apply:
et cetera adjicientur vobis . The one vitally important thing is that
every individual should come within the range of the influence of
these saving energies of grace; hence the Church is forced to
dominate Society, compelling all the members of Society to come
under its sphere and influence ; but, on the other hand, her stability
is entirely unaffected by the fact of the extent to which her influ-
165 For the special character of the mediaeval sects in principle, contrasted with
the heresies of the Ancient World which were merely determined by dogma,
see Leckler , 1, 42. It is the nature of an association ( Verein ) i p. 34, On the.Donatist
controversy as the original type of the whole sect movement, see Kawerau , a.a,0.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 339
ence over all individuals is actually attained. The Church is the
great educator of the nations., and like all educators she knows how
to allow for various degrees of capacity and maturity, and how to
attain her end only by a process of adaptation and compromise.
Compared with this institutional principle of an objective
organism, however, the sect is a voluntary community whose
members join it of their own free will. The very life of the sect,
therefore, depends on actual personal service and co-operation; as
an independent member each individual has his part within the
fellowship ; the bond of union has not been indirectly imparted
through the common possession of Divine grace, but it is directly
realized in the personal relationships of life. An individual is not
born into a sect ; he enters it on the basis of conscious conversion ;
infant baptism, which, indeed, was only introduced at a later date,
is almost always a stumbling-block. In the sect spiritual progress
does not depend upon the objective impartation of Grace through
the Sacrament, but upon individual personal effort; sooner or
later, therefore, the sect always criticizes the sacramental idea.
This does not mean that the spirit of fellowship is weakened by
individualism; indeed, it is strengthened, since each individual
proves that he is entitled to membership by the very fact of his
services to the fellowship. It is, however, naturally a somewhat
limited form of fellowship, and the expenditure of so much effort
in the maintenance and exercise of this particular kind of fellow-
ship produces a certain indifference towards other forms of
fellowship which are based upon secular interests; on the other
hand, all secular interests are drawn into the narrow framework
of the sect and tested by its standards, in so far as the sect is able
to assimilate these interests at all. Whatever cannot be related to
the group of interests controlled by the sect, and by the Scriptural
ideal, is rejected and avoided. The sect, therefore, does not
educate nations in the mass, but it gathers a select group of the
elect, and places it in sharp opposition to the world. In so far as
the sect-type maintains Christian universalism at all, like the
Gospel, the only form it knows is that of eschatology ; this is the
reason why it always finally revives the eschatology of the Bible.
That also naturally explains the greater tendency of the sect
towards “ascetic” life and thought, even though the original ideal
of the New Testament had not pointed in that direction. The
final activity of the group and of the individual consists precisely
in the practical austerity of a purely religious attitude towards life
which is not affected by cultural influences. That is, however, a
different kind of asceticism, and this is the reason for that difference
340 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
between it and the asceticism of the Church-type which has
already been stated. It is not the heroic special achievement of
a special class, restricted by its very nature to particular instances,
nor the mortification of the senses in order to further the higher
religious life ; it is simply detachment from the world, the reduc-
tion of worldly pleasure to a minimum, and the highest possible
development of fellowship in love; all this is interpreted in the
old Scriptural sense. Since the sect-type is rooted in the teaching
of Jesus, its asceticism also is that of primitive Christianity and of
the Sermon on the Mount, not that of the Church and of the
contemplative life ; it is narrower and more scrupulous than that
of Jesus, but, literally understood, it is still the continuation of the
attitude of Jesus towards the world. The concentration on per-
sonal effort, and the sociological connection with a practical
ideal, makes an extremely exacting claim on individual effort,
and avoidance of all other forms of human association. The
asceticism of the sect is not an attempt to popularize and univers-
alize an ideal which the Church had prescribed only for special
classes and in special circumstances. The Church ideal of asceti-
cism can never be conceived as a universal ethic ; it is essentially
unique and heroic. The ascetic ideal of the sect, on the contrary,
is, as a matter of course, an ideal which is possible to all, and
appointed for all, which, according to its conception, united the
fellowship instead of dividing it, and according to its content is
also capable of a general realization in so far as the circle of the
elect is concerned . 1651
Thus, in reality we are faced with two different sociological
types. This is true in spite of the fact (which is quite immaterial)
that incidentally in actual practice they may often impinge upon
one another. If objections are raised to the terms “Church” and
“Sect”, and if all sociological groups which are based on and
inspired by monotheistic, universalized, religious motives are
described (in a terminology which is in itself quite appropriate 165b )
as “Churches”, we would then have to make the distinction
between institutional churches and voluntary churches. It does
not really matter which expression is used. The all-important
point is this : that both types are a logical result of the Gospel,
and only conjointly do they exhaust the whole range of its socio-
1653 See p. 435.
16tb See my treatise: Religion und Kirche, Preuss. Jahrb., i 8 g$. It would be an
interesting subject of inquiry to find out to what extent the monotheistic
universal religions (non-Christian) contain similar differences. It may well be
supposed that similar phenomena occur within Islam.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 34*
logical influence, and thus also indirectly of its social results, which
are always connected with the religious organization.
In reality, the Church does not represent a mere deterioration
of the Gospel, however much that may appear to be the case
when we contrast its hierarchical organization and its sacramental
system with the teaching of Jesus. For wherever the Gospel is
conceived as primarily a free gift, as pure grace, and wherever it
is offered to us in the picture which faith creates of Christ as a
Divine institution, wherever the inner freedom of the Spirit,
contrasted with all human effort and organization, is felt to be the
spirit of Jesus, and wherever His splendid indifference towards
secular matters is felt, in the sense of a spiritual and inner inde-
pendence, while these secular things are used outwardly, there the
institution of the Church may be regarded as a natural continua-
tion and transformation of the Gospel. At the same time, with its
unlimited universalism, it still contains the fundamental impulse
of the evangelic message ; the only difference is that whereas the
Gospel had left all questions of possible realization to the miracu-
lous coming of the Kingdom of God, a Church which had to
work in a world which was not going to pass away had to organize
and arrange matters for itself, and in so doing it was forced into
a position of compromise.
On the other hand, the essence of the sect does not consist merely
in a one-sided emphasis upon certain vital elements of the Church-
type, but it is itself a direct continuation of the idea of the Gospel.
Only within it is there a full recognition of the value of radical
individualism and of the idea of love ; it is the sect alone which
instinctively builds up its ideal of fellowship from this point of
view, and this is the very reason why it attains such a strong
subjective and inward unity, instead of merely external member-
ship in an institution. For the same reason the sect also maintains
the original radicalism of the Christian ideal and its hostility
towards the world, and it retains the fundamental demand for
personal service, which indeed it is also able to regard as a work
of grace: in the idea of grace, however, the sect emphasizes
the subjective realization and the effects of grace, and not the
objective assurance of its presence. The sect does not live on the
miracles of the past, nor on the miraculous nature of the institu-
tion, but on the constantly renewed miracle of the Presence of
Christ, and on the subjective reality of the individual mastery
of life.
The starting-point of the Church is the Apostolic Message of
the Exalted Christ, and faith in Christ the Redeemer, into which
342 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the Gospel has developed; this constitutes its objective treasure,
which it makes still more objective in its sacramental-sacerdotal
institution. To this extent the Church can trace its descent from
Paulinism, which contained the germ of the sacramental idea,
which, however, also contained some very unecclesiastical elements
in its pneumatic enthusiasm, and in its urgent demand for the
personal holiness of the “new creature”.
The sect, on the contrary, starts from the teaching and the
example of Jesus, from the subjective work of the apostles and
the pattern of their life of poverty, and unites the religious indi-
vidualism preached by the Gospel with the religious fellowship,
in which the office of the ministry is not based upon ecclesiastical
ordination and tradition, but upon religious service and power,
and which therefore can also devolve entirely upon laymen.
The Church administers the sacraments without reference to
the personal worthiness of the priests; the sect distrusts the
ecclesiastical sacraments, and either permits them to be adminis-
tered by laymen, or makes them dependent upon the personal
character of the celebrant, or even discards them altogether. The
individualism of the sect urges it towards the direct intercourse of
the individual with God; frequently, therefore, it replaces the
ecclesiastical doctrine of the sacraments by the Primitive Christian
doctrine of the Spirit and by “enthusiasm”. The Church has its
priests and its sacraments ; it dominates the world and is therefore
also dominated by the world. The sect is lay Christianity, inde-
pendent of the world, and is therefore inclined towards asceticism
and mysticism. Both these tendencies are based upon fundamental
impulses of the Gospel. The Gospel contains the idea of an objec-
tive possession of salvation in the knowledge and revelation of God,
and in developing this idea it becomes the Church. It contains,
however, also the idea of an absolute personal religion and of an
absolute personal fellowship, and in following out this idea it
becomes a sect. The teaching of Jesus, which cherishes the ex-
pectation of the End of the Age and the Coming of the Kingdom
of God, which gathers into one body all who are resolute in their
determination to confess Christ before men and to leave the
world to its fate, tends to develop the sect-type. The apostolic
faith which looks back to a miracle of redemption and to the
Person of Jesus, and which lives in the powers of its heavenly
Lord : this faith which leans upon something achieved and objec-
tive, in which it unites the faithful and allows them to rest, tends
to develop the Church-type. Thus the New Testament helps to
develop both the Church and the sect; it has done so from the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 343
beginning, but the Church had the start, and its great world
mission. Only when the objectification of the Church had been
developed to its fullest extent* did the sectarian tendency
assert itself and react against this excessive objectification.
Further, just as the objectification of the Church was achieved in
connection with the feudal society of the Early Middle Ages, the
reappearance of the tendency to form sects was connected with the
social transformation, and the new developments of city-civiliza-
tion in the central period of the Middle Ages and in its period of
decline — with the growth of individualism and the gathering of
masses of people in the towns themselves — and with the reflex
effect of this city formation upon the rural population and the
aristocracy.
The Sect-type and the Law of Nature
Further, this also explains the differing attitude of the Church-
type and of the sect-type to the idea of Natural Law, which had
already long ago been merged with the Biblical idea of law as a
unity which was natural to Christian feeling. The Church proves
the rationality and universal validity of her moral law by deriving
it from the moral Law of Nature, as it existed in its perfection
at the dawn of the creation of humanity, and it is only exalted in
the Church through the particular ethic which results from being
endowed with the sacramental grace of supernature. But that is
only of importance for the theory of apologetics. In practice the
Church was unable to carry out that Divine and Natural Law,
since it involved universal brotherhood and equality, and the
absence of the State, of possessions, law, and the element of
compulsion. The Church felt that in this sinful world this law
could not be obeyed, and thus a conception of the Christian law
in this sense would either condemn the Church to impotence or
would drive it to revolution. So the Church decided to make this
absolute Natural and Divine Law relative; in fallen humanity it
is changed into the relative Natural Law of the order of the State
and of Society, whose character of law, power, and force is both a
penalty and also a remedy and a means of discipline for sin. The
organ of redemption which dominates the world, can, however,
adjust itself to this relative Law of Nature, since it incorporates
its institutions as preparatory and lower stages, and dominates
them in a uniform manner by means of the ecclesiastical central
authority. The imperfections which remain are unavoidable, and
are the results of the fallen state; they are blotted out by the
* I.e. under Hildebrand. --Translator’s Note.
344 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
power granted to the Church of the forgiveness of sins, covered by
the merits won by the special class of ascetics. Indeed, on the level
of scientific theology and ethics the Church, had already incor-
porated the secular social institutions into the absolute Natural
Law itself, as a logical inference ; the only office it left to the Fall
was its transformation into the painful system of violence and
compulsion, so that now the State, Society, and possessions all
appeared to be directly justified both by God and by Nature.
In direct contrast with that position, however, the sects adopted
an entirely different attitude towards Natural Law. They did not
base their arguments upon learned patristic or Aristotelian re-
searches into the Law of God, but upon the plain Law of Christ,
or the Sermon on the Mount. When they feel it necessary to base
this Divine Law more broadly upon a rational and universal
foundation, they merely identify it with the Natural Law of the
Primitive State, with the pure law of an uncorrupt Nature in
which there was neither violence, law, war, the oath, nor private
property. The sects rejected compromise with the world, and
therefore also relative Natural Law. They had no conception of
an architectonic scheme of Society and of the universe, with all
the relative elements and gradual evolution which such a con-
ception involves; for them absolute contrasts alone existed. By
their appeal to the absolute and pure Law of Nature, however,
they gave to their Biblicism a still deeper emphasis, an illuminating
reason, and a passionate sentiment.
At the same time this conception of absolute Natural Law
permits a good deal of variety of interpretation. It can include
human inequality in position, calling, and influence, inequalities
which can only be obliterated by love, in a communism of love
which gives its all for the good of the whole. It can, however, also
mean the equality and the equal rights of all individuals, and then
it leads to democratic and communistic ideas. At all events the
New Testament Divine Law, and the absolute Law of Nature, are
both opposed to existing conditions. The more strongly, however,
it is emphasized that these conditions are not only opposed to the
Will of God, but also to Nature, the more men feel impelled to
attack them, to attempt to reform, to improve, to create some-
thing new.
This end, however, can be obtained in various ways. There is
the method of pure detachment from the world, and the attempt
to realize the ideal in groups of men and women who amid
suffering and endurance obey the Law of God. There is the
method of peaceful and orderly reform, which desires to influence
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 345
the authorities in Church and State in the direction of as close an
approximation as possible of actual conditions to the ideal : in the
case of the Church the ideal is that of poverty, and in the case of
the State it is that of peace ; if the Church fails to do her duty the
method can then be tried of placing the responsibility upon
the shoulders of the laity and upon the government of the State,
urging them to introduce these reforms by force. Since from the
standpoint of this ideal it is easier to reform the Church than
the State, and since in order to reform the Church the help of the
State is needed into the bargain, this reform on the lines of the
absolute Law of Nature and the Scriptural Divine Law is directed
by preference against the Church, and it becomes an ecclesiastical
revolution. Where, however, the idea is also directed against the
unnatural and ungodly conditions within the State and Society,
it then develops into a democratic socialistic revolution, which
does not shrink from violence, but justifies it by appealing to the
Old Testament and to the Apocalypse. At the same time, all these
forms of absolute Natural Law which, in one way or another,
have thus been shaped, are closely connected with general social
movements, or even with political and national movements.
Sometimes the impulse comes from the ranks of the oppressed
lower classes, who resolve to band themselves together to defend
their own existence, and to gain a personal share in religion.
Sometimes nationalistic tendencies, friendly to the State, promote
the sect ideal, at least within the Church, with the aim of making
the relation of the Church to a National State easier; in such
instances, however, their ideas of Natural Law usually also
colour their ideas of the State. And sometimes it is the social
revolution of the later Middle Ages which claims the Law of God
and of Nature as its ideal, and desires to set up a Christian order
of society by force, for the satisfaction of its own interests.
Further, the fact that the sects swept away the idea of relative
Natural Law altogether, substituting for it the idea of the absolute
Natural Law which is regarded as identical with the Divine Law
of the Bible, produced a number of important religious and
theological results, which are typical of the sociological character
of the sect-system and of its relation to the Church-system.
First of all, the Divine Law was no longer reduced primarily to
the Decalogue, which was replaced by the New Testament, or the
really Christian Law of God, the Law of Christ, or the Sermon on
the Mount. It had been easy to unite the Decalogue with relative
Natural Law, and since in the main the Christian moral law
was reduced to the Decalogue, it was in general brought down to
346 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the level of that which was practically possible and could be
carried out by the mass of mankind. The distinctly Christian
element was only introduced by being added artificially to the
superstructure, in the requirements of mysticism and ritual, and
in the “Evangelical Counsels 55 . The Divine Law of the sects,
however, aimed at the specifically Christian element, not so much
at the ethical temper of the Sermon on the Mount as at the
examples which it gave of this spirit and the proof of this temper
required by the New Testament. That certainly limits the New
Testament idea, but it still maintains it, in its fundamental
tendency, over against the broadening tendency of the Church.
Secondly: the institution by the sect of the absolute Law of
God and of Nature as the sole authority, and the consequent
removal of the whole idea of stages and of development, involve
the most far-reaching consequences. They alter the whole outlook
on life and the world, but these consequences were not perceived
by the theology of the sects, which was mostly very simple. The
relation between God and the world becomes much simpler and
more intelligible. The intention and the Law of God are expressed,
without a shadow of ambiguity, in the Bible and in the voice of
pure Nature alone ; this law needs no complicated doctrine. The
moral demand is addressed to all men alike; there is no need of a
graduation of perfection, according to various vocations. Creation
does not descend through various stages, down to materiality, nor
does creation thence mount again through stages, like some great
work of art, from Nature up to Grace and Supernature. But
creation places mankind immediately before the task of the
realization of its ideal ; and this ideal is here presented shorn of
the quality of a mystical supernature, which elevates man’s
nature above itself.
In the literature of the sects there are no allusions to these
things, yet this must have been the influence which caused the
whole idea of the cosmic process of development to recede, in order
to make room for the sense of a direct relation between God and
the creature. On the other hand, this idea does not affect the
vocational organization of Society, which is taken for granted in
these circles, so long as they avoid communist democratic Social-
ism. Indeed, Wyclif in particular lays very great stress upon it.
His translation of the Bible introduces into general use the word
“calling” in its present-day meaning . 1650
Since these sectarians belonged mainly to the lower classes in
the towns, work and professional organization and the love of
1650 See Weber; Prot . Ethik Archiv. XX, p. 40.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 347
labour seemed natural enough. The only element which has been
discarded is the incorporation into the process of development
from Nature to Supernature. To that must be added the third
element : the strong emphasis upon the idea of law. Catholicism
had for the conception of God two great main definitions : that of
supernatural absolute essence and existence, and that of law,
which governs the world of Nature and of Spirit. In it both these
ideas were not dialectically balanced, but they existed side by
side at the basis of its ideal of human society and of the world of
grace, continually changing and supplementing each other,
filling God’s Natural and revealed Law with the redeeming
energy of grace, and in so doing it participates in the mystical
beatitude of infinite supernature. Since, however, in the thought
of the sects a mystical beatitude of this kind as the crown of the
graded structure disappears almost entirely, the conception of
law now becomes dominant; God’s Being and Will constitute
His Natural and Revealed Law; the Bible is the Law-book of
revelation, identical with the Law-book of Nature. On the one
hand, this expresses the common character of the previous Christian
development of thought, which had only tried to combine both
these ideas in its conception of God ; in the theology of the sects,
however, instinctively the only element which was retained was
the second element, the element of law. On the other hand,
however, It is still only the expression of emphasis upon personal
service, and the importance of the practical idea of morality.
Thus, in the theology of the sects the idea of law is substituted
for the idea of the Church as the organ of Grace and Redemption,
and this conception becomes its central feature. It is this con-
ception of law which constitutes the essential truth and the
objective point of reference of these groups, and, in spite of all their
emphasis upon Grace, and even upon Predestination, this idea
still colours the whole system with a certain legal severity.
Once these main features of the sect-type are quite clear in our
minds, we can then perceive various differences within the
movement, which, owing to an inexact use of the term “sect 55 , are
often thrown together indiscriminately, simply because these
groups have severed their connection with the Church. In the real
sense of the word the sect is a genuine sociological phenomenon — a
most exclusive form of fellowship, only the bond between its
members differs from that which unites the members of an
official Church. This term, therefore, cannot be applied to those
phenomena which contain no element of religious fellowship at
all, and which, at the most, produce changing groups due to
348 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
similarity of opinion, or the infection of suggestion. Thus we
cannot apply the term “sect 55 to those purely enthusiastic and
purely mystical phenomena in which there emerge the Neo-
Platonic elements of the Mediaeval Church, or to those movements
which are characterized by an entirely subjective and spontaneous
excitement. In these instances we are dealing either with a purely
individualistic emphasis upon direct communion with God, which
is based upon the Inner Light, and in itself feels no need of fellow-
ship ; or with epidemic infections which are based upon the trans-
ference of strong passions from one person to another. While the
sects base their fellowship objectively on the Revelation of
Scripture, on the Law of God, and on its fulfilment controlled by
the community, in itself mysticism has no fellowship-principle at
all ; its only idea of fellowship is intercourse between like-minded
souls. Indirectly, however, the sect- type is also important for these
phenomena ; for as soon as they wish to organize themselves into
a community they follow the example of the sect-type. Since the
ecclesiastical objectivity of the sacramental institution is entirely
excluded from their scheme, they also, in so far as they aspire after
a permanent unity, must centre round these two points : a volun-
tary basis of membership, preserved by strict ethical behaviour.
Even in these groups, in spite of their mysticism, and their
doctrines of the supernatural Divine Substance, the moral law of
Scripture takes the central position, and they build up their
fellowship on the idea of Christ as their heavenly Master, their
Lawgiver, and their Example, and on the principle of the fulfil-
ment of the Law. The various phenomena then merge into each
other : the sect can merge into mystical enthusiasm, and mystical
enthusiasm can merge into the sect. But the structural principle
itself, so far as it is present and logically worked out, is always
derived from the sect-type, from the voluntary church, which
always proves the state of grace of its members by practical
verification in life and by holiness. When this does not take place
these movements break up into casual groups of enthusiasts, who
can, it is true, appeal to the enthusiasm of the New Testament,
but which again and again, by the New Testament itself, are
thrown back upon either the ecclesiastical institutional type or
upon the voluntary community of the sect which observes the
whole Law of Scripture.
These theoretical and general statements need to be inter-
preted by the history of the sect-movement ; in this, however, I
can only report on the researches of others, describing them from
the point of view which has just been outlined. In so doing it will
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 349
become plain that this method of interpretation is no artificial
scheme pressed into service from the outside, but an interpretation
which has arisen out of sympathy with the phenomena — an inter-
pretation which only illuminates their inner coherence.
The Gregorian Reform
and the Sect Movement
The point of departure for the development of the mediaeval
sects 166 was the Gregorian reform and revolution within the
Church. In both directions its influence was decisive : in the
sphere of the development of the Church this influence was
direct ; in the sphere of sect-formation it was indirect. In this
reform movement the canonical and universal Papacy rose against
the seigniorial territorial Church in which all the interests of the
feudal State were closely united with those of the clergy, and all
the tasks and aims of the clergy with those of the feudal State, in
which the task of Christianizing the people was in the hands of
the great bishops, who were entrusted with all kinds of duties of
government. Closely connected by ties of blood and by mutual
interests with the nobility, surrounded by large groups of people
dependent upon it both politically and economically, supple-
mented by a monastic system which was also fed by the aristocracy,
and, where strictly Christian interests required it, exercising a
compulsory reform from above downwards, this Church pressed
heavily upon the lower classes and the inferior clergy, especially
in France and Italy. In these circles, therefore, there arose a
vigorous opposition to the seigniorial Church ; in this respect it
was the working classes of the towns who were most vocal. Already
in the eleventh century in Italy and France these classes, together
with the cities themselves, began to play a part, and to usher in
the period of the great social movement, characterized by increase
in population and the herding together of masses of people in the
cities. They hate a Church which treats the inferior clergy like
serfs, which exploits the manorial rights through its tithes, which
uses the wealth of the Church not for the poor, but for the Church
itself, or for the feudal requirements of the higher clergy — a
Church which in every respect is the opposite of the poverty of
the apostles, and which, in contrast to the Early Church, excludes
the congregations from every chance of co-operation.
188 On this point and the following section, cf. the extremely instructive and
comprehensive articles by Gioocchimo Volpe: Erelici c moti ereticali del A/ al XV
secolo , nei loro motivi et riferimenti sociali, Rinnovamento , igoy, for June, August, and
October.
350 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Out of these elements Gregory's agitation created the Gregorian
demagogy, and made an agreement with it against the auto-
nomous seigniorial Church, while at the same time it was seeking
to attain other ends, and was only utilizing the popular agitation
for its own purposes. In the Lombard cities, and the so-called
Patarini, this is quite obvious. Here the laity rose in passionate
struggles against the married clergy, with their simony, and in
the infinite confusion which followed, when this order of clergy,
banished by the Pope, was prevented from carrying out its
functions, and when in every city bishops and priests were
fighting against each other, and when there was often no one to
conduct a service at all, this lay movement greatly increased.
The fact that the Pope decreed that the sacraments and orders of
these simonist priests were not valid, meant that the Pope directly
encouraged the laity to criticize the priesthood, and this renewed
the situation which had prevailed during the struggle with the
Donatists. It was inevitable that scepticism about individual
priests should lead to scepticism about the office of the priesthood,
that the superiority of the layman to the simonist priest should
lead to independence of the priest altogether.
In this critical situation the excited laity was ripe to receive the
Inflammatory influence of an ancient sect, which was, it is true,
in its dogma only semi-Christian, but which bore within its
organization the sect-type of lay Christianity, and of criticism
according to Scriptural and primitive Christian standards. This
was the Gnostic-Manichaean sect of the Cathari, which spread
from the East along the trade-routes and from the Byzantine
enclaves of Italy, and thence pressed forward into the transalpine
territories . 167 The more neglectful the feudal Church was in its
pastoral care of the congregations under its jurisdiction, the
more these congregations must have been inclined to listen
attentively to the fiery propaganda of these sectarian apostles,
and to note the examplary purity of these apostles in practical
life. Their doctrine certainly was only partially Christian ; it was a
Manichaean dualism, combined with the harshest kind of asceticism
based upon metaphysical arguments ; it included the doctrine of
the transmigration of souls, and it was supported by a Christology,
interpreted in the docetic sense, and by the New Testament
allegorically interpreted. These doctrines, however, were not the
decisive element in the movement; it is even possible that they
may have been to a great extent concealed ; their main result was
167 Cf. Bollinger: Beitrage zur Sektengesehichte des M.A., z8go , and Tocco: Veresia
ml ME.> 1884 .
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 351
to stimulate criticism of the doctrines of the Church, especially
those relating to the hierarchy and the sacraments, to lead to a
renewed interest in the Bible, and to the reawakening of the
spirit of free lay discussion.
The most important aspect of this movement is its sociological
side ; it emphasized a lay Christianity, and the apostolate of the
“perfect 95 , who were poor and abstemious ascetics, who, in place
of the ineffective sacraments of the Church, provided an effective
confessional and absolution in the Consolamenium. This ritual act
may seem to be a feeble echo of the institutional Church — (the
effectiveness of the Consolamentum did not depend upon valid
orders, but upon the “perfection 99 of the celebrant) — but, so far
as propaganda was concerned, these Perfecti did not play a pro-
minent part, and, in fact, the secret doctrines were often unknown.
The effective elements in this movement were the free lay-
preaching, the criticism of the Church by the laity, the intimate
fellowship of the scattered members, the practical example of
poverty, indifference towards the State and the ruling classes, the
rejection of the official Church and of its priesthood, the refusal to
swear in a court of law, or to have anything to do with the ad-
ministration of justice, or with force, the abrogation of duties and
tithes, the independent study of the Bible, and the habit of testing
everything in Church life by the standard of the Primitive Church.
Towards the end of the eleventh century groups of this kind,
which had probably already been influenced by the Cathari,
spread through Upper and Central Italy, France, Flanders,
Holland, and the Rhineland. They produced typical leaders like
Peter of Bruys, Henry of Toulouse, Tamchelm the Fleming, Eudo
of Stella. The terms in which the sects were described may be
fitly applied to them. In Arnold of Brescia, particularly, we can
trace clearly the process of transition from the Gregorian partisan
and the mystical Dualist to a number of heretical groups which
arose out of his ideals.
The further progress of heresy was connected with the rise of
new classes and sections of the population, with the release of
activity in the lower classes and in the towns. That is why at first
they flourished chiefly in the South of France, in Lombardy, and
in Italy, where the development of city-life was going forward
with great strides. Thus Italy experienced its great period of
religious and philosophical awakening, a period which was
wedged in between two periods of religious indifference. It was at
this time that, quickened by the general interest, the motives of
Church and sect came into conflict with each other, and out of this
352 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
clash of opinions there arose the Waldensians and the Franciscans,
Bonaventura and Dante. 167 *
Only then did the Christian movement descend from the heights
of aristocracy and of the landed nobility, from Kings and rulers
down to the level of the people. The surplus population from the
rural districts which came crowding into the towns were now
aroused to take their own share in religious and ecclesiastical
matters. As the official social theory of the Church — the organiza-
tion of Society on professional lines — was in the real sense only
borrowed from the ideal of the city, so also, on the other hand,
the heretical movements also arose out of city-life, and there arose
a sense of need for the religious activity of the laity, which had
not been satisfied by the monastic reforms and founding of Orders
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (until the Mendicant Orders
rose almost all the monks belonged to the rural districts and to
the aristocracy) . The newly developed activity, which was stimu-
lated by the play of various forces, flowed also into the religious
channel, under the dominating force of religious ideas. The result
was that the laity began to take a vital part in religious matters,
and, more or less under the indirect influence of the groups which
have just been described, men sought to find their way afresh in
the light of Primitive Christianity and of the Bible.
To some extent at least the Crusades also strengthened the
sense of need for such a contact with Primitive Christianity; in
part, however, along with other motives, they also arose out of
Primitive Christianity itself. The Bible, and the New Testament
in particular, had an increasingly wide circulation (especially
when we remember that all was still in manuscript), and it was
translated into the vernacular.
The vision of a new ideal world arose; gradually, as men gazed,
it began to take definite shape before their eyes. And all that men
had ever known or desired or imagined about the life of the
Early Church was now gathered up in a picture of the most vivid
colours : evangelical poverty and apostolic life, the fellowship of
believers, and a living share in the Church ; the priesthood as a
characteristic of the community of believers as such, and almost an
emanation from it ; all laymen entitled to aid in the administra-
tion of the sacraments and to preach freely; a body of clergy
content with voluntary gifts, not armed with secular weapons,
and not promoters of discord among Christians. And as it is a
youthful world of absolute ideas and feelings, many people loved
to use startling and passionate expressions to describe it. They
16 7a Sec p. 436.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 353
felt themselves seized by an irresistible passion to fashion their
lives in all particulars according to the doctrine and the life of
the Early Church ; they believed that every Christian was under
the strict obligation to live like the Apostles, i.e. to go through
the world preaching the Gospel, and to edify the masses by their
practical example.
Finally, like all dreamers and primitive folk (who lack the
practical and the historical sense) , they believed in the possibility
of reforming Christian Society from within outwards, shaping it
according to their own ideal, and according to that which had
been laid down in Scripture . 35168
All this ferment of new life, however, was only forced into the
channel of sect-formation by the Church herself. As soon as the
Church felt tolerably sure of her own position, and she perceived
the dangers of that connection with the social movement, she
severed her connection explicitly with those democratic tendencies
which were hostile to the Church which she had previously
encouraged. In reality her absolutism was the direct opposite of
those tendencies. She now formulated her terrible law against
heresy, and drove all who opposed her into the arms of the sects.
Above all, that independent lay Christianity was restricted, and
the outlet which it still possessed in the ancient canonical election
of bishops was closed ; especially the right of examination which
had been granted to the laity as a defence against simonist priests
was withdrawn, and retained only by the Pope and the legates.
As the influence of the Princes and the nobles had been withdrawn
from the Church, so now the influence of the people was with-
drawn. The sacraments again became entirely independent of the
moral character of the priests. Laymen were also excluded from
any share in the administration of Church property. The priest-
hood was clearly distinguished from the laity in dress, liturgical
language, and way of life. The priests alone were now entitled to
preach, and all co-operation of laymen in public services was
forbidden. Theology (technically and scholastically) set itself in
opposition to all popular literature, and law became a highbrow
affair of the jurists.
The financial system which was now necessary for the newly
centralized ecclesiastical system emphasized and strengthened the
ecclesiastical taxes, and consumed the property of the poor,
exactly as the previous seigniorial Church had done. The hated
tithe, which could not be delivered to the simonist priests, was
now demanded in full by the new Gregorian Church. In contrast
168 Volpe, June , pp. 668 J).
z
VOL. I
354 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
with the ancient feudal Church and the patristic Church of the
Councils, the absolutist Church must have seemed (as, in truth, she
was) something quite new. The necessity it felt to attain its ends
by developing the whole juridical and political apparatus of a
political administration which could interfere in all questions of
law and of property, gave to all mystically inclined and interior
souls the impression of a rigid externalism and worldliness.
Finally, we must add the chief point: it is clear that the Gre-
gorian Reform was a complete failure so far as reforming the
morality of the clergy was concerned. Its claims had aroused a
spirit of severe criticism among the laity, but, in the light of this
criticism the new body of clergy did not appear very different
from that which had preceded it ; in fact, the constantly renewed
complaints about the clergy probably indicate that it was even
worse than the earlier body had been. The absolute Papacy,
which was in theory the source and the organization of every-
thing, was now also made practically responsible, and this gave
rise to endless criticism of the new system.
The Sect-Movement in Southern Europe:
The Waldensians
The increasing radical movements of lay religion arose out of
this hostility between a newly awakened Scriptural and ascetic
piety, which itself had helped to build up the Church of the
golden Middle Ages, and the result of this reform, and the exclu-
sive attitude of the Church towards these movements, forced them
to form themselves into sects. Thus there arose the most important
and influential sect of all: the Waldensians. At first this was a
Home Mission movement, with popular preaching carried on by
missionaries in the apostolic way, who preached in the vulgar
tongue, led lives of poverty, went to the least and the poorest
among the people, and in everything obeyed the missionary
instructions Jesus gave when He sent out the Twelve (Matt. x).
When they were prohibited by the Church they became a sect, in
which the fundamental idea was that of the religious equality of
all believers — women as well as men — and in which, as among the
Cathari , the Sacrament of Penance was administered by religious
ascetics who travelled about from place to place, practising
poverty, celibacy, and (in secret) the cure of souls. They threw
over the doctrine of Purgatory, and the idea that human behaviour
could influence life in Purgatory ; they gave up indulgences and the
Invocation of the Saints, swearing, fighting, and the shedding of
human blood, capital punishment and war ; each individual had
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 355
to stand on his own feet, i.e. upon his own personal achieve-
ments and good works, i.e. upon his religious subjectivity. The
Waldensian movement soon divided Into two sections : the
confederation of French nationality, and the more radical con-
federation of Lombardy, which entirely rejected priesthood and
sacrament, ritual splendour and Church order, which linked itself
up with the remains of local heresies.
Both groups expanded swiftly; the French “Poor Men of
Lyons 55 confined their efforts to Southern France, while the Lom-
bard movement spread beyond the Alps . 169 In their offshoots they
became mingled with alien 1 elements, most of all with that mystical
enthusiasm (to which they were originally strangers) which,
without the aid of Church or priest, realizes its Christian piety In
mystic ecstasies, or with the militant ecstatic movements which
were likewise outbreaks of a lay religion, hostile to the Church.
The followers of Ortlieb, the Joachimites, and the Brethren of
the Free Spirit here mingled with the Waldensians, and we can
trace these effects of a movement among the lower classes down
to the beginning of the Hussite movement . 170
The Franciscans, and other Movements in Italy
The original Franciscan movement was closely related with the
Waldensian movement; St. Francis himself was possibly not free
from direct Waldensian influences. The Poor Men of Lyons and
the Poor Men of Lombardy correspond with the Poverelli of St.
Francis of Assisi. The Franciscan movement belonged originally
to the sect-type of lay religion. Here, however, the Church under-
stood the situation, incorporated the new movement into her
system, and made use of it precisely for winning back the en-
dangered city elements of the population to the Church. Even so,
however, the Franciscan Order with its lay associate members
(Tertiaries) remained to a large extent a stimulus to lay religion,
and to a mysticism which was indifferent towards the Church;
and in its later struggles there arose in the “Spiritual 55 Franciscans
a vigorous opposition against the ecclesiasticizing of the Order.
They preached the ideal of the Primitive Church before Con-
stantine and Sylvester, the ideal of the poor church, and of the
apostolic life with service to the poor ; their hatred of the hierarchy
169 Volpe points out in several places that they spread especially in the circles
of the weavers and in the woollen industry, i.e. in the circles in which production
through handicrafts and home industries was most widespread, in which ideas
of social reform are most at home, or even only in these circles ; cf. also Kautsky:
Gesch. d. Sozialismus, p. 103. 170 Volpe, pp. 27, 24 , 37, October , p. 236 /.
35 6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
increased more and more, and they split up into various sects and
heresies. “In any case, they represent something new, movements
of a democratic character directed towards aims which are both
social and religious — religions explicidy and consciously, social only
implicitly and uncertainly (for lack of social experience, and also
because at that time even every matci'ial need sought to find its
satisfaction in a religious transformation ). 5 ’ 171
Most of these movements originally arose in Italy, which had
been shaken by its violent struggles between the Curia and the
Empire, the towns and the nobles, the clergy and the lay folk — in
Italy where town-life had early begun to develop. Owing to the
prevailing conditions, the nobility and the rural population,
willingly or unwillingly, were soon also drawn into the heretical
movements, which brought a fresh access of strength to heresy.
The watchword of the movement became “the Church 55 — the
Church, that is, reformed in accordance with the Divine Law of
the Gospel and the ideal of the Primitive Church — sometimes
conceived only as a de-secularized sacerdotal Church, sometimes
rather as a lay fellowship — and with this ideal there were com-
bined heretico-mystical influences and apocalyptic prophecies.
In the solitude of his monastery the Abbot Joachim, who had
returned from the East, wrote his prophecies, in which he pro-
claimed the third Age, no longer an era of fear and servitude, of
labour and of discipline, but an age of the Spirit and of freedom,
of peace and absence of violence, of the humble and the poor,
without social and class distinctions, without “mine and thine 55 .
In all this there emerged clearly the characteristic features of the
Divine Law and of the Natural Law in the sense of the absolute
Stoic-Christian-social doctrine, free from compromise. Caught up
into the unrest of this critical time, these prophecies became a
further important ferment within the sect-movement.
Then came the Flagellants, the Soccati, the Apostolic Brethren,
the heretical “Spirituals 55 , Fra Dolcino and Gerhard Segalleli.
“There are no longer any Religious Orders, the Orders are hated
and people do not want to be ruled ; they desire the freedom and
equality of the Primitive State . 55172 “Simplification of life and of
religious organization, a passion for the Early Church and a literal
interpretation of Holy Scripture, an exact following of the word
and teaching of Christ, a complete, and, likewise, a mechanical
repetition of the apostolic life — that is, the common foundation
upon which the different sects arise, with differences which can
be extraordinarily great . 5 ’ 173
171 Volpe, July, p. 26,
172 Volpe , p . 72.
178 Volpe, p. 73 f*
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 357
Such is the great sect-movement of Southern Europe, with its
various branches. Its fundamental element was its primitive
Christian individualism aroused by the New Testament, break-
ing out in opposition to the materialized institutional Church,
coupled with the co-ordination of individuals into groups for
the practical performance of good works, combined with great
indifference and hostility towards the world and its institutions
of authority and property.
This sect-movement is that typical combination of religious
individualism and moral rigorism which characterizes the sect-
spirit; the rigorism holds fast to the Sermon on the Mount and
the absolute Law of Nature, which Indeed is in line with the
whole radical Christian tradition, from the time of the Primitive
Church and the Religious Orders. In all this the bond of fellow-
ship is solely the “Law of Jesus’’, literally understood, and the
institution, based likewise upon this law, of missionaries and
apostles, vowed to poverty, who live only for the fellowship ; the
latter are often also priests, and are thus in the line of Apostolic
Succession, but their qualifications and their influence are still
held to be dependent only upon personal moral purity and
austerity. The Pauline doctrine is almost entirely obscured by
the Law of Jesus.
At the same time the Law of Jesus is conceived as identical
with the Law of Nature, in the exact and complete meaning of the
term, and as such it is usually thought of in the sense of a far-
reaching communism of love, with its corresponding practical
charity, and only now and again does it merge into democratic
ideas of freedom and equality.
Alongside of these main currents there is also a second quite
different element to be considered : that of mystical piety. This
piety, which is influenced by Neo-Platonism and Averroism, only
had an impulse towards fellowship according to the extent in
which it came into touch with Waldensian and Franciscan ideas.
Finally, apocalyptic prophecy played its part in the whole
movement. In the sect-movement, which was at first confined to
small groups, this apocalyptic element held firmly to Christian
universalism, as a miracle to be worked by God in the new age ;
with which, as the ideals of that new age, there were often com-
bined the ideas of mysticism, freedom, and equality.
In the confusions of the Trecento this sect-movement drew
Ghibellinism into its net, became entangled with the political
situation, lost its original orientation, and finally it died out in all
kinds of eccentricities and extravagances, leaving behind only
358 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
an easily inflamed remnant of apocalyptic ideas. Humanism and
the Renaissance, secular politics and the complete victory of the
Curia, made an end of it, and since then in Italy and in Southern
Europe the ecclesiastical institution has had nothing more to fear
from a sectarian Christianity. That is one of the reasons why no
movement on the lines of the German Reformation was ever
possible in Southern Europe . 174
Wyclif and the Lollards
In the North, however, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
this Southern sect-movement was followed by a sect-movement
which was just as thorough, the movement which centres round
the names of Wyclif and Huss . 175 This movement differs from the
Italian sect-movement in this respect : its influence was permanent,
and, alongside of other movements of a more general character, it
did a good deal to prepare the way for Protestantism. The Wyclif
movement in particular had a decidedly strong influence in this
direction. It also originated in opposition to the Papal absolutism,
and its effects upon the political and economic situation both in
the country at large and in the local parishes. From the fourteenth
century onwards the civil authorities everywhere had begun to
resist this ecclesiastical interference, and the English Monarchy
had also initiated a very comprehensive policy of secularization.
In this question Wyclif was on the side of the Government. Thus,
in this instance, the primary motive was not a reaction among
the lower orders, but national sentiment and the desire for
political independence. The ideal upheld by Wyclif, however, was
the ancient ideal of the “poor Church” — with its opposition to
the spirit of the “world” — the Church before Sylvester and Con-
stantine, the Church as it was when it was still in harmony with
the law of God and with the Gospel. From his point of view a
Church of this kind alone is in harmony with the religious ideal,
and yet allows for an independent civil order.
Both these ideas, however, the ideal of the “poor Church”, and
independence of the secular authority, were combined in a theory
which seems to me to be peculiar to Wyclif— a theory of Divine
Law which had far-reaching implications. It was a very original
174 On this question see Volpe, October p. sg6f.
175 On this point cf. Lechler : J. v. Wiklif (The first volume deals with Wyclif,
and the second with Huss and the other reformers before the Reformation) ;
Buddensieg: J. Wiklif und seine Zeit, 1885; on the relation between Wyclif and
Huss see Loserth: Huss und Wyclif. Z ur Genesis der Hussitischen Lehre , 1884 . For the
conception of the Church see in particular Gottschick : Huss% Luthers undZ^inglis
Lehre von der Kir eke 3 Z*f- Kirch.-Gesch 1886.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 359
Interpretation of the Patristic teaching combined with Natural
Law and Scriptural legalism; from time immemorial this group of
ideas had combined the idea of the “poor Church 55 with that of the
absolute Law of God and of Nature blunted by no compromise.
WycliFs new and skilful transformation of this ancient idea
betrays the mind of the learned theologian ; his movement there-
fore differed somewhat from Waldensian and Franciscan lay
religion, which simply appealed to the Bible . 176 Wyclif opposed
the accepted theory that “dominion 55 — whether spiritual or tem-
poral — was derived from God through intermediaries. He held
that the Divine Law of the Gospel (which he also conceived as
identical with the Law of Nature) should be understood in this
sense : the right to hold property and to wield authority is derived
from God direct; this right, however, may only be enjoyed by
those who observe GocTs moral law of love, humility, and self-
control ; it is a fief which is only granted to the vassal so long as
he obeys the law of his lord. However, since the Church does not
keep this Law, the State has the right to deprive her of her un-
lawful possession and to restore the ideal of the “poor Church 55 ,
which exists solely for spiritual ends. In this theory Wyclif had no
intention of attacking the property rights of the secular classes,
since it would be impossible for them to disobey God 5 s Law in
the way which lay open to the priesthood. He considered that
their property was legally connected with their secular functions,
whereas the functions of the Church do not require the possession
of earthly wealth — indeed, they rather exclude it. The primary
aim of this conception of the Lex Dei or Lex Christi or Lex Naturae ,
obviously coloured by feudal ideas, was simply that of restoring
the ideal of the “poor Church 55 , and its radical social implications
were not developed to their logical conclusion in the temporal
sphere . 177 It is, however, very significant that in this strict con-
ception of the Lex Dei et Naturae radical social consequences do
emerge over against the whole existing order, even although at
first they were only practically applied to Church property ; more
far-reaching consequences were inevitable. On the other hand,
however, the habit of testing the Church by the Lex Christi also
gradually led Wyclif towards the sect- type, so that in the end his
ideas came to resemble those of the Waldensians, and the main
features of the Franciscan movement.
From the time the schism broke out it is evident that Wyclif
moved farther and farther away from his original ideal, which
had been merely patriotic and ecclesiastical, towards a criticism
176 See p. 437. 177 See p, 438.
360 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the idea of the Church itself, and to practical efforts on the
same lines, which he deduced likewise from God’s Law. To him
the Church was no longer the institutional Church, imperilled by
schism and exploited by the hierarchy, but it is the number of the
elect. It is interesting to observe that it is a learned theologian,
the ornament of Oxford, who is arguing like this ; in this theory,
however, there emerges quite definitely, so far as I know for the
first time, 177a that influence of the idea of Predestination upon
sociological theory, which, at a later date, was to become so im-
portant 178 in Calvinism. The only influence of the idea of Pre-
destination which had previously emerged lay in the fact that the
irrationalism of the Christian idea of God was expressed in the
idea of Predestination, and that from that standpoint individual-
ism was determined in the sense „of an essential inequality. Now,
however, the tendency of this idea to encourage individualism
appears from another point of view, in which it is interpreted as
the immediacy of the religious relationship, with a disintegrating
effect upon the idea of the Church as the ecclesiastical organ of
salvation. In this theory the idea of Predestination changes that
religious fellowship which is the effect of a centralized and united
hierarchical institution, with an unlimited power of radiating its
energies in every direction, into a strictly limited body of believers,
whose only law is that of the Bible, and who only recognize each
other by the practical ethical proofs of Predestination. The earlier
effect of the idea of Predestination is also clearly visible in Wyclif,
and distinguishes his conception of Christian social reform (as the
means of working out the principle of Predestination) from all
theories of an equalitarian democratic kind. In his teaching,
however, the second aspect of the idea emerges still more clearly,
since Wyclif s main interest lay not in social reform, but in that
which this presupposes, the reform of the Church. His main
emphasis, therefore, lay in the depreciation of the institutional
aspect of the Church, in order to exalt the individual and personal
immediacy of the soul’s relationship with God — a relationship
which is the work of God, and not of the Church, and about
whose existence God, and not the Church, decides; he also laid
great emphasis upon the results of this theory in daily life, since
only thus does Predestination become visible, and only thus does
it fulfil its purpose . 179
177a Bezold , however, in his book, Die Lehre von der Volks mwerdnit at im ALA.
(hist. Z eitschrift , i8j6), suggests the names of Durandus v. Pourgain and Lull as
forerunners (, 338 /.) ; in their teaching, however, the idea of Predestination is
absent, 178 See p. 439. 1™ See p. 440.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 361
The practical proof of the truth of these theories ought to be in
harmony with the Scriptural Divine Law — that is, it should lead
to the spirit of detachment from the world, and from property, to
very great strictness of life, and to a spirit of love, which expresses
itself in service in every kind of position or calling within Christian
Society — a spirit of love which makes everything common property.
This, however, is tantamount to proclaiming the laity as the
support of the religious community. This is why Wyclif gave
the Bible in the vernacular, as the great fundamental law of the
fellowship, into the hands of the laity, that they might use it for
independent study and for independent criticism of the Church.
The priesthood may still exist, but Wyclif would have it turned
into a missionary body on the lines laid down in Matt, x, whose
members are to wander up and down the country, in poverty and
gentleness, proclaiming the Law of God. According to Wyclif,
this kind of priesthood would have no character indelibility and
finally even ordination may be omitted; there would be no
hierarchy, and no organic-patriarchal system of stages and
degrees — above all, no Papal Head. The Lord of the Church, that
is of the elect, is Christ alone. This means, however, that the main
pillar of the institutional Church has been destroyed, and that
nothing has been put in its place. There is no idea of an inde-
pendent new Church organization, but only of a reformation;
there is here no idea of any social order in which State and
Church exist side by side ; the whole idea is that of an inclusive
reform of Christendom, which will affect the State and Society.
In all this, however, Wyclif does not visualize Christendom as an
objective institutional Church, but as a fellowship of the elect,
active in practical matters, guiding itself independently by the
Law of the Scriptures, with no need of an objective priesthood, a
fellowship which for the moment takes up the task of reform
through certain individuals and groups, until the time of the
general reformation shall come. That, however, means the
dissolution of the institutional Church, and paves the way for
the sect-type . 180
Wyclif finally extended his criticism still farther, and under-
mined the second chief pillar of the institutional Church, the
sacramental idea, even although he did not entirely destroy it.
In the doctrine of Transubstantiation he deliberately rejected the
central idea of the dominating position of the priest, and made
the Eucharist a spiritual pleasure accompanying the physical, in
which the priest was only the celebrant but not a miracle-worker.
180 See p. 440.
362 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
He also criticized the other sacraments in the light of the Law
of Christ, and discarded the sacraments of Penance, Confirma-
tion, and Extreme Unction. He retained Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper, the Sacrament of Marriage, which in itself did not actually
need a priest at all, and an emasculated form of priestly ordination.
As part and parcel of this criticism it is, of course, obvious that he
also rejected the endless consecrations and blessings, pilgrimages,
indulgences, fraternities, worship of the saints, pictures and relics,
celibacy and the organic organization of the Church.
Wyclif did not undertake a positive organization of the elect,
and their formation into an exclusive fellowship or group. He was
satisfied, like St. Francis, with the organization of his mission-
aries, the Lollards. In this respect his ideas failed to come to a
head. In them, however, there appear the characteristic effects
of a return to the radical Law of the Bible, and to the Law of
Nature, and towards an evangelical lay religion. Here, as in all
other movements of this kind, this reaction takes the form of the
individualism of the sect-type, with its radical detachment from
the world — or, at least, a bare minimum of worldly possessions and
pleasure combined with the highest possible degree of the com-
munism of love. These views, welded into a coherent theory, then
stand out in declared opposition to the institutional conception of
the Church, and the ecclesiastical organic social doctrine with its
spirit of compromise.
The Hussite Movement
The Hussite movement was based entirely upon Wyclif’s
theories, although its development in various directions varied
greatly. Huss himself was considerably less “advanced” in his
views than Wyclif, but his work produced most radical conse-
quences, combined with some characteristic forms of compromise.
This movement developed to their logical conclusion both the
radical ideas which were implicit in Wyclif ’s teaching — a church
organization of the sect-type, and a thorough transformation of
the general order on radical social lines.
In Bohemia the national opposition between Czechs and
Germans, and the criticism of the hierarchy which was involved
in the general spirit of hostility, had already led to several religious
movements, and sectarian influences also were fairly widespread.
Wyclif s ideas were thrown into this ferment ; Huss adopted them,
and became their prophet. “The Church, the community of the
elect, in which the only valid law is the Law of God — the Papacy
a mere historical development, and now actually in opposition
mediaeval Catholicism 363
to the Divine Law, and thus anti-Christian, all ecclesiastical
authority dependent upon it, if it agrees with this law — everyone
under the obligation to resist false rulers ; then the bitter criticism
of the conditions, particularly among the higher clergy and in
monasticism, of the evils wrought by the wealth and the worldly
dominion of the Church; the duty of governments to reform such
evils, the right of the laity to apply the Divine Law, even against
the hierarchy, and to avoid bad priests . 55181 For these ideas of
Wyclif Huss died.
His martyr's death, however, kindled a flame which had great
results, both in the sphere of social development and in that of
Church History. For a long time this movement had a revolu-
tionary effect upon the whole of Eastern Europe ; it produced the
complete sect-type, and the revolutionary sense of the need to
realize an absolute Christian social order; both these elements
had a deep and enduring influence, which can be traced, possibly,
right down to the Anabaptist movement of the Reformation
period, and into the radical programmes of the Peasants 5 Wars.
In this revolution we can trace the influence of “evangelical 55
ideas in three distinct groups which are characteristically different
from each other ; the differences between these groups are signifi-
cant both in their sociological effects in general, and for the
whole social influence of the Gospel.
The first group, the so-called Calixtines or Utraquists, pre-
served the conservative leading features of the teaching of Huss ;
they became a schismatic institutional Church, which retained
priesthood and sacrament, and which only claimed the Cup for
the laity and the use of the vernacular in worship. They also
demanded that priests should lead a spiritual life according to
the Law of God. They looked to the nobles to fight for them
in order to gain the Reform of the Church, and also to protect
them. Ultimately and quite consistently, in return for certain
concessions, they were reconciled with the Church; severed from
its hierarchy and from Apostolic Succession, they realized that it
was impossible to maintain the institutional conception in the
Catholic sense. They possessed no basis on which they could have
formulated a new institutional conception in place of that of
Catholicism . 182
The second group was that of the radical Hussites or Taborites,
who were driven by the ecclesiastical ban Into armed revolution,
181 See p. 440.
182 This has been shown very well by Gottschick in his comparison between the
conception of the Church in the teaching of Huss and in Lutheranism.
364 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHtlRGHES
and who were forced to form an independent organization
according to the Law of God. In this group religious opposition
was combined with nationalist hatred and the desire for a new
national Church; alongside of the aristocracy, which stood for
the pure Law of God, there were democratic movements among
the peasants and lower classes in the towns. This altered the
whole aspect of the movement: “The Divine Law alone is valid;
there is none other; every layman has the right to judge and to
proclaim both what this law is, and what may be contrary to it.
According to this not only are Transubstantiation and the
worship of the Host rejected, but also the worship of the saints,
and of sacred pictures, the whole mass of ecclesiastical holidays,
blessings and consecrations, the oath, Purgatory, and prayers for
the dead, confession to a priest and indulgences, the sacraments
of Extreme Unction and of Confirmation; in part also the specific
difference between priests and laymen, and in any case between
the ranks of the clergy. Their priests are not consecrated by
bishops, but they are inducted by the congregations ; they dispense
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the simplest form, and every-
where without churches and altars, without priestly vestments or
liturgy, and all in the Czech tongue . 5 ’ 183
All this shows very clearly the effects of the evangelical Divine
Law, that is, of evangelical individualism, no longer controlled
by any institutional idea, an individualism which utterly destroys
the whole Catholic dogma of the Church, with all that it involves.
Combined with that, however, the Law of God, in the sense of the
absolute Law of Nature, and of the radical law of Christ, is applied
to the whole of social life, and imposed upon the life of Society,
no longer by princes and nobles, but by a community of Christian
warriors for God.
This tendency towards violence was new. It could not be justi-
fied by appealing to the New Testament and to the Law of
Christ, so there was now a reaction to the Old Testament, with
its “holy 55 wars, and the forcible cleansing of Israel by righteous
kings. Above all, however, this idea no longer represents WycliFs
conception of a law in which right and might correspond with
Christian ethics, and with the loving service of the ruling classes
for the whole, but with the Christian Natural Law of democratic
freedom and equality. The idea of Predestination ceases to be
effective, and the rationalistic-Stoic-Christian doctrine of equality
is, as in the Gospel, deduced afresh from the Primitive State and
183 Here, and below, farther on, I follow the excellent brief summary in
Muller: if.G., II \ 44 .
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 365
transferred to the present time: “Those who break entirely with
the world and with sin have the task of placing a new order
alongside of it, w r hich is not erected upon the Family and the State,
upon property and dominion, but upon the Christian ideas of the
equality of all in possessions and social relations . . . thus an
effort is now made to get rid of private property, class distinctions,
rates and taxes. The Luxemburg dynasty disappears, and is
replaced by the Kingdom of God, i.e. in reality the rule of the
sovereign people, which regards itself in all things as the instru-
ment of God. These attempts certainly failed miserably, and the
final result of the Revolution was only to strengthen the power of
the nobility and to repress the other sections of Society. But the
propagandist power of those ideals lived on in the hearts of the
people . 5 ’ 184
Thus in both directions : in the development of the sect-type,
as well as in that of individualistic-communistic Christian Social-
ism — above all, in the proclamation of violence and of a Holy
War — the main ideas of Wyclif and of Huss have been left far
behind. K. Muller compares this situation, and rightly, with the
contrast between the Independents and the Puritans 185 ; it is
actually an entirely parallel instance : the sectarian and radically
social consequent of these ideas strides far ahead of the Idea of a
Christian society conceived from the standpoint of an ecclesiastical
institution, after it had been repressed by the ecclesiastical system
with its objective and relative point of view. At this point, there-
fore, it is relevant to ask : What were the actual concrete causes of
these deviations and extremist developments?
Some thinkers regard them as a radical and logical develop-
ment of the ideas of Wyclif. Others go farther back, and explain
the development of this movement into the sect-type from the
influence of Waldensian groups, which undoubtedly did exist in
Bohemia; it is, however, certain that their influence upon the
Taborites cannot actually be proved. Still more difficult and more
important is the question of the origin of its equalitarian socialism,
and of its revolutionary “right of resistance”. That also might
quite well be explained from the standpoint of Wyclif’s pre-
destinarian-aristocratic theory, although in itself this was an
entirely different idea; if the revolutionary implications of this
theory had been further developed from the point of view of the
restoration of the true aristocracy and of its service of love for the
community, the whole idea could easily have been diverted into
the channel of radical democracy. In any case, the difference is
184 K, Muller ; K.G. } //, 8 5 , The same, //, 86,
366 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
fundamental. Others would find the explanation in Joachimite
eschatology, with its ideas of an age of equality and freedom;
some suggest the possible effect of early Slav communistic ideas,
or of the transformation of the ideas of Wyclif in peasant and
urban working-class circles into democracy, or of the effect of
that natural communism which a long life in the army, with its
constant travel, would produce . 186
I can offer no opinion upon this problem of origins. All I wish
to point out is the positive difference which exists between the
equalitarian idea of the Christian Law of Nature, and the evan-
gelical Law of Cod, which here becomes evident, and the love-
communism of the Wyclif ideal of Society (conceived in an aristo-
cratic and predestinarian sense), as well as between it and the
realistic social philosophy of St. Thomas, which assimilates and
subdues natural differences in its organic and patriarchal philo-
sophy. In reality, at this point — to some extent indirectly — there
emerges the Stoic-rationalist, equalitarian-communist conception
of the Primitive State and of the evangelical Law, as it was
taught by the great Fathers of the Church in the fourth century ;
we cannot doubt that there did exist some kind of continuity
with Primitive Christian radicalism, even though it is clear that
the causes of this Christian revolution were not theoretical ideas,
but, in the last resort, practical conditions and social tendencies . 187
The third group gradually drifted away from the Taborites,
and finally formed the body known as the “Moravian Brethren 5 '.
They upheld the same Wyclif-Franciscan ideal as the Taborites,
but they rejected the method of force as un-Christian. Here, then,
we see the emergence of the religious association or conventicle,
which aims at realizing within its own circle, as far as possible,
the ideal of love and holiness ; so far as the world outside was
concerned its aim was to withdraw from all contact with the
State, and with force and secular power, and in a voluntary
union to realize the evangelical Law of God, so far as the continu-
ance of the world and of its organizations made that possible;
in so doing equalitarian socialism was again discarded, and it was
replaced by the spirit of the communism of love and practical
charity, all of which presupposes private property and a secular
calling. This was “the first great attempt of the lay world to
realize a religious life which was not based upon a compromise
186 See p. 441.
187 The latter point is rightly emphasized by K. Muller; //, #5, and /, 207;
only Muller does not lay stress on the difference between these ideas and the
later official conception of the Natural Law taught by the Church, which
indeed was very far from being identical with those Patristic doctrines.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 367
with the worlds a life which would not be content with formal
consecrations and a semi-morality, but one which took the whole
of life under its wing ; it encouraged the withdrawal of earnest
Christians from the dangers of the world into close brotherly
fellowship, exclusive effort after personal holiness, in patience and
renunciation, in absolute peaceableness of spirit and unselfish-
ness . 53188 Its founder was a layman, Peter von Chelzic, who refused
to have anything to do with any Wycliffite propaganda which
was supported by violence. Chelzic claimed that all Christians,
and not merely the clergy, ought to withdraw from all the sinful
activity of the world, especially from trade and public life,
with its lust of power and its spirit of compulsion. He held that
Christians ought to occupy themselves with agriculture and with
manual labour, and that when they are unjustly oppressed it is
their duty to suffer but not to resist. At this point Wyclif and Huss
were still nearer to the general doctrine of the Church about the
various degrees within the Church; they had summoned the
secular authority to intervene in order to reform the Church, and
they had regarded Christian Society as one in which Church and
State were both included and united in mutual influence upon
one another. The “Moravian Brethren 55 , on the other hand,
severed the religious community from the State, and created a
society within Society. Thus, when the reform of Society as a
whole seemed an impossible ideal, Christian thought fell back
upon itself, increased the individualism of a merely religious
equality within its own circle, and filled it with the caritative social
ideal. This is a complete return to the social Ideal of the Early
Church, after the Christian civilization of the Church had proved
itself to be a secularization and a refraction of Christian morality,
and the attempt to realize the absolute Law of Nature and of
God by violence had proved itself to be a bloody Utopia.
“The Church ought to be poor, without ornaments and cere-
monies, without judicature, and free from all connection with
earthly power; its membership should be thoroughly voluntary,
its priesthood without preferment, and unlearned ; it should serve
the people only by the Word, Prayer, and the Breaking of Bread,
and it should earn its livelihood by the work of its hands . 35189
188 K. Muller , II, 86 .
189 Ibid., II, /jj. When Muller adds: “These are the ideal of holiness of the
mediaeval Church, but viewed as the task of the whole community 55 ( p . 152)
there ought to be added : “and without the lower and preparatory stage of the
secular morality of the relative Natural Law. 55 In another passage (. Kultur d.
Gegenwart , I, voL IV, p. sit, and in the iuG., II, go) the writer has emphasized
this point himself.
368 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
So long as there were priests who had entered the community
from the Catholic Church the priesthood was no problem;
when the good priests died out a bishop had to be consecrated
from among the Waldensians, to whom they were closely related.
In this retention of Apostolic Succession we see the last relic of the
Idea of the institutional Church. The discipline and education of
individuals are, however, not exercised by the priest, but by the
Church itself— a clear sign of the predominance of the sect idea.
It should, however, be observed that the members of this sect
belonged to the peasantry and the working classes; thus it also
represents the affinity between sectarian and radical Christianity,
and the outlook, the needs, and the conditions of life of the lower
classes with their detachment from the wider world. A social ideal
of this kind was only possible from the point of view of the lower
orders; at the same time their craving for the realization of
personality, by whatever cause it had been awakened, could only
be satisfied in religious communities of this kind.
About the year 1500 a new party arose, originating from the
upper classes, which protested against this narrow policy, and
demanded a more positive attitude towards the world ; it claimed
the right of entrance into official life In the State, and freedom to
swear in a court of law ; the whole development closely resembled
that which took place when primitive Christianity gradually
entered the world of secular occupations. Thus the evolutionary
process of these early days was again set in motion. Since, how-
ever, this sect was small and narrow, this development did not
lead to that relative Christian ethic, which resulted when Christ-
ianity took shape as the Church within the ancient world. This
sect merely remained a Dissenting body, somewhat more closely
adapted to the world than hitherto.
The Hussite movement — the knowledge of which in German
research is, indeed, very inadequate, while Czech sources are
inaccessible — was certainly, primarily, merely a local movement ;
its historical influence, however, has been both extensive and
profound ; above all, its importance as a type for the whole branch
of Christian social doctrine under discussion is immense. It
displays the emergence of the sect-type out of a development of
the ecclesiastical idea, which, under the influence of the Bible and
of social conditions, had already strongly emphasized the indi-
vidualistic and radical-ethical point of view which reduced the
right of the world to exist at all to the barest minimum. There is
here no idea of asceticism in the monastic sense of c 'mortification 5 5 ;
the ascetic tendency is expressed only in detachment from the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 369
State, power, law, oath, war, wealth; that should be noticed by
those who see in such features only the “Catholic corruption of
Christianity into a system of asceticism 55 , and not the continuance
of the primitive Christian attitude to life.
Further, it is significant that in this Christian radicalism the
peculiarly Christian ideas of love, and the purely religious indi-
vidualism which includes secular inequality, are partly mingled
with, and partly separated from, equalitarian individualism and
its communistic-democratic result ; it is evident that the latter is
not an essentially Christian idea, but a rationalist idea which arose
out of Stoicism, caught up by the democratic currents which
arose out of the general course of social development ; finding
itself within an atmosphere impregnated with Christian ideas, it
then seeks to justify its existence from the Christian Scriptures.
Finally, it is also characteristic of the Hussite movement that it
finds it so difficult to achieve a Christian universalism, The only
universalism it knows is the Chiliastic form, which holds that
those who have been oppressed in this world will come into their
own at the Final Judgment. Whenever this movement tries
to exert the universalistic impulse within present conditions,
there always arises alongside of that passive form of Christian
piety, with its hope in the future life, the more aggressive kind,
which believes that the end of the World has already come, and
that therefore it is justified in having recourse to violence, which
wages the Holy War of the Last Days with the authority of the
Scriptural Apocalypse, or encourages revolution, which it justifies
by borrowing social ideals and the idea of a “Holy War 55 from
the Old Testament. All these features were repeated in the
Anabaptism of the Reformation period, and in English Inde-
pendency.
Peasant Risings
Out of this complicated tangle of varied influences let us first
of all study the equalitarian, and therefore the revolutionary,
conception of the Christian Divine and Natural Law. This con-
ception is that rationalistic reinterpretation of the purely religious
equality taught by Jesus, which, under the influence of the great
Church Fathers of the fourth century, had been completed, at
least so far as the doctrine of the Primitive State was concerned,
and which, later on, had again disappeared behind the pre-
destinarian doctrine of Augustine and behind the doctrine
(borrowed from Aristotle) of an inequality based on Natural Law.
In the present state of our knowledge of these questions it is
370 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
difficult to say what caused the reappearance of this doctrine. We
saw that these ideas had already re-emerged in the teaching of
Joachim and of Dolcino, in the latter in connection with the
Peasant Rising of Val Sesia. These ideas were, naturally, always
kept alive by the permanent Patristic tradition, by the democratic
and republican elements of the Co? pus juris, and by the religious
theory of equality, which was also continually being renewed in
an external social form in monasticism. In detail, of course, it was
always in connection with particular events and external stimuli —
chiefly democratic tendencies among the peasantry, and in the
lower classes in the towns — which caused these ideas to break out
and to be utilized to practical advantage. When this took place
these ideas then found literary advocates, or rhetorical agitators,
who placed at their disposal juridical and theological doctrines,
or even ancient traditions of the sects, which then added their
contribution to these movements. That such ideas were wide-
spread, and that they were able to count upon general acceptance,
is shown by the radicalism with which the famous Roman de la
Rose (which belongs to the early part of the fourteenth century)
proclaims these equalitarian democratic ideals as those of the
Primitive State ; it does not seem to matter very much that the
specific connection with Christianity is lacking, for the Law of the
Primitive State is regarded as equally the Christian Law of God . 190
In practice these ideas were expressed in the great Peasant Risings
of the later Middle Ages, which are generally based upon the
radical democratic equalitarian idea of Natural Law, combined
with the ideas of Christian freedom and equality, and with the
Law of the Primitive State.
The first cause of these Peasant Risings lay, of course, in the
social and economic sphere. Sometimes they were due to the
improvement of conditions among the dependent peasantry, which
in England inspired the lords of the manor to try to reintroduce
by force the state of serfdom, in order to supply their need for
servants; sometimes they were due to the exploitation of the
peasants through the burdens of war, as in France, sometimes,
particularly in Germany, to other complicated conditions into
which I cannot enter here. In so doing, however, to a great extent
they absorbed the equalitarian and communistic conception of
Christian Natural Law and made it their own; I cannot stay to
explain how this came about. It is sufficient to know that the
equalitarian socialistic democratic conceptions of Natural and
Divine Law, as well as the Christian freedom which is based
upon them, have not been developed, in any instance, out of
190 See von Bezold: Lehre von der Volkssouveranitai, p, 340.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 371
the dialectic of purely Christian thought, but that they have
been introduced through political and social revolutions ;
further, the only support which they find in tradition is in those
elements of the Patristic ethic, which have not arisen out of the
development of Christian thought itself. Whenever it is felt
necessary to realize these ideas by violent methods, and the
revolution needs a Christian justification, the Old Testament is
always requisitioned in order to buttress the argument . 191
On the other hand, those groups which arose out of the indi-
vidualism of the sect-type, and out of the ideal of the subjugation
of Society under the world-indifferent radicalism of the other-
worldly ethic, and of the ideal of poverty, are far removed from
this revolutionary spirit. This is a second form of development
from the sect-type, which certainly mingles with the former, yet
both these developments ought always to be kept distinct from
each other ; their relationship is like that of the Taborites and
the Moravian Brethren, save that in both cases the peculiar
opposition to the Church as such, which characterized the
Bohemians, is lacking. Thus those experiments in communism
which were made within the smaller exclusive circles of the
Beghards and the Beguines, of the Brethren of the Common Life,
and similar organizations, ought to be interpreted solely in the
secondary sense. These movements were homes of refuge for the
helpless and the solitary, for contemplative souls and for outcasts.
In particular instances they sometimes became technical associa-
tions for production. In their essence, however, they did not
represent the idea of a Natural Law which aims at reforming
Society, but a group of the ascetic type of the communism of love
which lives in detachment from the world. They do their part to
revive lay religion and religious individualism, just as the mystics
and the so-called pre-Reformation authors of religious tractates
had done, but they had no idea of social reform. They correspond
to the Primitive Christian type of the communism of love, which
was quite harmless from the social and political standpoint.
Finally, however, it is not surprising that this religious indi-
vidualism and the radicalism of the evangelical Divine law went
still farther, extending its influence into the public life of the
State and of the Church, and thus into the thought- world of the
official institutions by which it was confronted. This was pre-
eminently the case in the demand for a poor and purely spiritual
Church, which immediately created a new basis for the relation
between Church and State ; this could not fail to introduce ideas
of reform into ecclesiastical and juridical literature, since on all
191 See p. 442.
372 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
hands the reaction had begun to stir against the universal claims
of the Papacy.
As we have already seen, the domination of the world by the
Church, and its universal guidance of social life, were based upon
the fact that when this situation arose no actual State was then
in existence ; the idea of the State, therefore, was replaced by that
of ecclesiastical unity and control ; and all this was made possible
by the simplicity of the social and economic conditions which
then prevailed. When, however, national States arose, and a
social life developed which could no longer be dominated and
controlled so simply by the ethic of the Church, there then arose
the crises of mediaeval Church History, and attempts to discover a
new method of organization. The national States felt they must
strive to influence the Church organizations within their territory,
and in order to do this they proclaimed the power of the rights
of the laity within the Church ; to some extent, at least, the ideas
of the sects were here quite useful, until the method of negotia-
tions and concordats came to be preferred, and the ruling princes
shared the ecclesiastical power with the Pope. On the other hand,
however, the Church, which had assumed too heavy a burden,
and which began to suffer under it, was severely shaken both
externally and internally. The representatives of the ecclesiastical
interest therefore had to try to create reform ; in so doing they had
to depend partly upon the laity, partly upon the ideal of the
Church vowed to poverty and unworldliness ; this led the Church
nearer to the sect-ideal, at least in certain directions, until the
strengthened centralization of the Church in the Papacy, and
the habit of making concordats with ruling princes, practically
made a final end of those reforms.
Literature of Popular Sovereignty
It was the jurists and theologians of the French Kingdom, and,
relying upon them, the literary assistants of Louis of Bavaria,
and among them again pre-eminently Marsilius of Padua in his
famous Defensor Pads , who first desired to attain the peace and
reform of Christian Society by securing the authority of the State,
and by leading the Church back to the Scriptural condition in
which it was before Constantine. Here the resemblance to the
early processes of Wyclif’s thought is obvious . 192 Here, however,
192 At a later date this analogy was expressed in the most decided fashion by
Pope Gregory XI (. Riezler , p. 2gy) ; John of Paris calls his statements “Walden-
sian’ 5 , see Haller: Papsttum und Kirchenreform , 1 , 1903, p % 74; Keller , pp. 102-113,
claims him for Waldensian influences.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 373
the starting-point for securing the authority of the State is not
the idea of a predestined endowment of power, but the general
official doctrine of Natural Law. In relation to the State, therefore,
the only fresh element is a greater emphasis upon the Natural
Law and Aristotelian elements which it had in common with the
Thomist theory. Positive law and the institutions of the Govern-
ment arise from the will of the real legislator, the people, or its
representatives ; in the exercise of their functions these laws are
bound by the will of the people ; otherwise they are monarchical,
like God’s government of the world, that is, so far as they are
consonant with reason. These very relative democratic statements
only exceed the Thomist doctrine by a still stronger emphasis on
Natural Law, and a more democratic conception of the same.
On the other hand, however, they are considerably altered by
the entirely different position which is now given to the Church
in contrast to the State. According to the Divine Law, which
here in itself is held to be identical with Natural Law, the Church
is exactly like the State, which primarily proceeds from the agree-
ment of all who share in it; the Church, therefore, is primarily
identified with the whole body of the faithful, and, according to
the special revelation of the Law of God in the Bible, its authority
is limited to a purely spiritual dominion, exercised by a priesthood
which is to be appointed, that is, to be presented for ordination,
by the congregation. Thus it is the congregation which orders,
controls and judges its priests. Among themselves the priests are
all equal, and the bishops have only accidental privileges, that is,
chiefly the right to ordain priests, in which the succession from
Christ downwards is maintained.
The Papacy and the hierarchy is a disastrous and purely
human institution set up by Constantine; in all cases where
spiritual guidance and counsel are needed it should be used under
the control of the secular authority. The duty of priests is to
dispense the sacraments and to proclaim the call to repentance;
in this matter, however, the Sacrament of Penance has merely a
declaratory character, and is not “effectual”, and the congrega-
tion must decide about each particular case. The sole standard is
the Divine Law of the Bible ; in case of doubt the decision rests in
the hands of a General Council composed of all the faithful or of
their representatives, to be called together by the secular power,
as the representatives of the body of believers. In all secular
matters, in legal affairs, and in the law of property the priests
are dependent upon the secular authority which determines their
number. Priests are called to lead a life of poverty in imitation of
374 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Christ. Their right to inflict punishments, even on heretics, is
limited to that of warning and threatening ; the secular power will
get rid of heretics who are harmful to the community.
The future life alone will see the external realization of the Law
of God with its rewards and penalties ; in this world the political
Natural Law is dominant in the State, and in the Church the
Law of God, in the form of the spiritual direction of souls, which,
however, may never interfere with the law of the State.
It is clear that in all this the interests of the secular power are
the paramount factor, and that the democratic principle of the
congregation has been transferred from political Natural Law into
the spiritual realm. In spite of the retention of the priesthood and
of the sacraments, however, this idea reduces the institutional
character of the Church in an amazing way, since the objective
sacerdotal institution is changed into a community of the faithful,
governing itself according to the Law of God, which, however,
owing to the fact that the political power which represents the
community everywhere acts in its name, becomes dependent upon
the authority of the State. Even though there is here displayed
no particular interest in the religious independence of the com-
munity, it is still undeniable that this whole theory proceeds out
of the atmosphere of individualism, and of the pure Law of
Christ, which the Franciscan programme of the “poor Church 55
and of lay religion diffused around it. 192a
William of Occam, the second great literary advocate in these
conflicts, taught a theory which was more definitely religious, and
also more conservative from the ecclesiastical point of view. In
his view both the spiritual and the secular authority are the heads
of Christian Society, co-ordinated and appointed to work together,
in which only in case of need would the Papacy have the right
to interfere with a corrupt secular government, or, in the opposite
direction, could it be maintained that a secular government
would have the right to interfere with a secularized Church
authority. The threat against the Franciscan doctrine of Poverty
by John XXII, and the formalism of the Church absorbed in
questions of policy, seems to him now to be such a case of need,
and he calls upon the State and the laity to give their aid in this
192a On Marsilius and his predecessors see Riezler : Die literarischen Widersacher
der Pdpste zur Zeit Ludwigs d. Bayern , 1874. ; in my own opinion, R. modernizes
Marsilius far too much and does not possess a sufficient acquaintance with the
vital points in mediaeval social history. For the situation as a whole Haller:
Papsttum und Kirchenreform, , /, is very instructive ; see also K. Kohler: Slaatslehre
der Vorreformatoren (Jahrbb.f. dealsche TheoL , XIX and XX),
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 375
instance, since, finally, membership in the Church is determined
by faith alone, and not by the priesthood. Here again we see the
sectarian result of Franciscan lay religion; although such action
is only proclaimed as a temporary right, it leaves behind it per-
manent consequences :
“A Pope can err in faith and morals, and even a Council called
by him can err ; the only other course to pursue is to call a general
Church Council which is based upon the community principle
and indirect elections, and which also does not exclude the secular
element ; ultimately, indeed, women ought not to be excluded ;
for in matters of faith there is no difference between priest and
layman nor between man and woman . 55 The emergency law itself
which leads to such radical consequences is based upon the right
of equity, contained within the Law of Nature. St. Thomas had
already laid down that this right, in case of need, should and
ought to secure the fulfilment of the real intentions of the Law of
Nature, and of the Divine Law in opposition to the Positive Law.
Thus here also the individualizing tendency of religion ap-
proaches the sect-type, and together with this there arises also the
radical Christian Law of God and of Nature, emphasized some-
times more from the point of view of poverty and love, and
sometimes more from that of the equality of individuals. 19 ^
Conciliar Theory of Reform
From the ecclesiastical side this was the legal teaching and
theology of the Conciliar Movement, which undertook to create
out of the ecclesiastical tradition itself a new principle of the
conception of the Church, since the great social Utopia of the
Papal universal civilization and universal dominion began to
decline on account of the result of its own approaching approxi-
mate realization . 193
When the Conciliar Movement shifted the centre of ecclesi-
astical authority from the Papacy to the bishops and priests, it
did not directly discard the institutional conception; but to the
extent in which it made the laity the supporters of Christianity,
and the judges of the Church, in part, at least, it came very near
to the sect-type ; while in the development of a democratic basis
192b For Occam see Riezler , 249 ff., especially 260-262. On the influence of
Marsilius and Occam, ibid., 297/. The influence of Occam is naturally much
greater than that of M. The Defensor Pads was only published in 1522. The
parallels between the Occamist theories and the doctrines of the sects, and
their connection with the theories of the radical minorities, are also emphasized
by Haller: Papsttum und Kirchenreform , /, Si, 193 See p. 443.
376 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
it strengthened the individualistic-rationalistic elements of ecclesi-
astical Natural Law. Since the relative Natural Law of fallen
human nature and the rigidity of politico-ecclesiastical organiza-
tions were being discarded, men felt the need for an absolute
Natural Law. This might be sought either on the lines of Wyclif,
in the purely Christian form of the absolute communism of love,
and in the sacrifice of the elect, as possessors of right and might,
for the whole, or in the rationalistic, individualistic equalitarian
form, as it presented itself in the Stoic and Roman-juridical
elements of the ecclesiastical intellectual treasure-house.
The whole movement rejected the doctrine of Wyclif without
hesitation ; all that then remained was the latter course, combined
with the ideal of a purified priesthood, purely spiritual, and vowed
to poverty, which, however, includes the right of the laity to
examine and intervene for the purpose of purifying the Church,
whenever the official Church fails in her duty. Lay religion, the
Church as a community of believers, a Church characterized by
poverty and spirituality, Natural Law: here all these elements
are vitally connected with each other.
All this, however, since it could not even imagine in theory the
abolition of the real root of the institutional conception in priest-
hood, sacrament and hierarchy, ultimately only issued in the
victory of the hierarchy, which logically incorporates and central-
izes the institutional idea; in union with the ruling princes, to
whom the hierarchy conceded certain ecclesiastical rights, the
hierarchy dealt the Conciliar Movement a fatal blow. But the
ideas which had once been set in motion remained effective, and
did their part to undermine the Catholic conception of the
Church . 194
Town Civilization and Individualism
Finally, we must not forget that the whole of the later Middle
Ages, with the growth of an independent lay civilization in the
cities, itself created a powerful competition with the previous
world of thought, which had been controlled by the Church and
particularly by the priests. Its first effect was naturally to limit the
power of the ecclesiastical civilization ; that, however, was followed
by an increasing disintegration of the objective side of religion
in general, as it was expressed in the institutional conception of
the Church. It had this effect, almost involuntarily and uncon-
sciously. Just as the development of city civilization in Italy
produced sects, so also the later development of the cities in the
194 See p. 443.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 377
North had in its own way encouraged lay Christianity. The truth
of this statement is stamped upon the literature of the later Middle
Ages ; the most famous example is the Theologia Germanica , a book
which had a great attraction for Luther and for Protestantism.
The popular religious movements of the later Middle Ages also
presuppose a loosening of the ties of objective ecclesiasticism . 19 5
Through all these movements, however, a sociological type of
Christian thought was being developed, which was not the same
as that of the sect-type ; it was, in fact, a new type — the radical
religious individualism of mysticism. This type had no desire for
an organized fellowship ; all it cared for was freedom for inter-
change of ideas, a pure fellowship of thought, which indeed only
became possible after the invention of printing. In this type,
therefore, the Lex Ckristi and the Law of Nature were no longer
predominant. The isolated individual, and psychological abstrac-
tion and analysis become everything. All that is left of the Lex
Christi is the example of Christ. This type, however, only attained
its universal historical significance in the later Protestant Dis-
senters, and in their connection with Humanism. Therefore we will
not deal with this question in detail until we reach the subject of
the pure individualism of the Protestant Dissenters.
All these theories were not merely the logical outcome of
thought ; they were the result of conditions which had awakened
the impulse to transform and re-create social life. Their basis was
an actual change in the whole general situation, which alone
really destroyed the whole fabric of the mediaeval world. We can
only mention this in passing; the whole process has often been
described. Political and economic interests freed themselves from
the international control of the Church, and from its cramping
economic ethic.
The State, which in its real sense was an unknown phenomenon
in the Christian unity of civilization in general, arose out of the
republican city organizations, out of the growing national feeling
among the peoples, and out of the military-dynastic federations
between different lands.
A nascent Capitalism, with its monopolies, its practice of credit,
its associations for trade, and its home industries, destroys the
moderate recognition of natural requirements, which were all
that the simple ecclesiastical ethic had known. The transforma-
tion of the conditions of life which was involved in the growth of
possessions, and in political independence, created a civilization
195 Cf. Karl Muller: K.G . , //, 154-167; Gothein: Palitische und religiose Volks -
beimgungen vor der Reformation , i 8 y 8 ,
378 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
of the senses which set aside the ecclesiastical principle of a love
of the world which could be combined with religion.
The individualism developed by the Church, and the traditions
of Stoicism and Neo-Platonism which she contained, seized on
the aesthetic methods of differentiation and training of the
personality alongside of methods which are purely religious, and
thus bit by bit the inheritance of antiquity was again brought
to light as the method of a supplementation and cultivation of
individualism, in other than merely religious directions. As this
developed the control of the Church declined. Literature, art, and
science passed out of the hands of the Church into the hands of the
laity. Above all, under these circumstances there arose, alongside
of the continual renewals of the idea of the Church — alongside of
the subjectivist groups and associations, and alongside of ecclesi-
astical and religious indifference — that third sociological type of
Christian thought, which does not depend, like the Church, upon
the institution, nor like the sect on the literal interpretation of the
Law of God in the Bible, but which is an individualism which
freely combines Christian ideas with all kinds of other elements,
and which is either entirely unorganized, or else exists alongside of
the Church and assumes its necessity for the mass of mankind. By
this time it entered into contact with many humanistic groups,
and since it had no sociological organization of its own, it had
either no measurable and definite social influence or idea at all,
or it created social Utopias, a free mingling of Christian and
humanistic elements, literary tours-de-force, but not practical
attempts at reform. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia was the first of a
whole series of free idealistic speculations. This type of idealism
was to be swept away by the new wave of ecclesiastical life in the
sixteenth and the seventeenth century, to return once more with
the modern world . 196
Conclusion and Forecast
It is only when we take all these factors into account that we
can understand the reason for the disintegration of the ecclesi-
astical civilization. But whatever may have been the influence
of these phenomena (which have been often described) in that
process of disintegration, the conceptual and intellectual failure
in the realm of thought (without which systems which are based on
ideas are never really overcome) still proceeds from the disin-
tegration of the essential ecclesiastical fundamental idea, that is,
it was due to the influence of the sect-type, in which radical
196 See p. 444.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 379
individualism and the radical ethic of love combined against the
church-type with its relative approval of civilization and the
secularization of religious energies.
At the same time, for the whole question before us, it is ex-
tremely important to realize the significance of this opposition
between these types ; it is a great help in understanding not merely
the disintegration of the mediaeval Christian unity of civilization,
but it throws a great deal of light upon the nature of the Christian
social doctrines, independently considered. This fundamental idea,
which was expressed at the beginning of this section, has now been
illuminated and illustrated, and in so doing its extraordinary
significance for the understanding of these things has become
clear. At bottom things are extremely simple, if we are willing
to see them as they really are. .
The Gospel itself presents essentially an ethical and religious
ideal of humanity which has certainly very clear-cut social
results. But the production of these results it leaves to the miracu-
lous power of God, which, at the coming of the Kingdom of God,
will set all things in order. The religious community for worship
which arose out of the Gospel orders the life of the community
with this future prospect in view. It also takes into account,
however, the present situation which has to be endured for a
time, and it here adopts a passive but conservative attitude to-
wards existing conditions and organizations within its own circle,
merely removing those results of the conditions which were
not compatible with the new ethical ideal, so far as that was
possible.
The priestly sacramental Church which developed out of this
community preserved the absolute character of the Christian
ideals in the central organization of the hierarchy, and made
its practical standards relative, to the extent of recognizing in
the institutions of the State and of Society the obscuring and
modification of the Christian Natural Law of the Primitive State,
which were rendered necessary by sin. From the attitude of
passive toleration, and then of actual acceptance of the “world”,
the Church moved forward — after the ancient world had passed
away — within the setting of the simpler mediaeval conditions of
life, to an independent shaping and limitation of the institutions
admitted by it to belong to the relative Natural Law, and it estab-
lishes in the Papal theocracy the Christian unity of civilization,
in which the ethical ideal of the Gospel, with a certain amount of
inevitable compromise, was reconciled with the world — and a
ladder was created of ethical development, which rose from life
3 8o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
in the world to the heights of mystical sanctification and brotherly
love.
The Gospel, however, reacted against this materializing and
relative tendency, with its radical religious individualism and
with its absolute demands, which from the very beginning had
never entirely adapted themselves everywhere to the ecclesiastical
conservative process of development. In the sect, fellowship is
expressed in personal piety and in ethical service, the radicalism
of the ethical law of the Gospel was put into practice, and the
concessions to relative Natural Law and fallen human nature
were rejected. That led directly to the penetrating social conse-
quences of the Gospel as the practical reform of Society, in which
all ought to serve the ideal of the independent religious person-
ality, and of unconditional brotherly love.
At first men hoped that this ideal would be realized naturally,
as soon as the relative corrupt Church was rcfoi'med ; then arose
the hope of a miraculous Divine intervention and the Chiliastic
dream; then, with the appeal to the Old Testament, men took
to violence and brought in a Christian communism by force;
ultimately these idealists withdrew once more from the world as
a religious community which set up the Christian law in the
centre of its own life, and tolerated secular institutions as the
results of sin and as an alien environment, waiting for their hour
of doom to strike.
This development of the Christian social doctrines continues
through these contrasts. The Church is the principle of universal-
ism and of Christian civilization, of intellectual freedom, of
mobility and power of adaptation, but she binds herself to
incarnate her Divine content in dogma and in the priesthood,
limits her relative process to an exclusive degree, and claims
external and exclusive dominion over the State and over
Society, in order to ensure sufficient room for its inward effects
of grace.
In so doing the Church was bound up with the general condi-
tions which a theocracy of that kind and an ethic of that kind,
which still always severely limited the life of the world, made
possible. Since the Church is the freer principle, she is so only
because at the same time she is more strictly bound up with the
dogmatic-objective and ritual-institutional aspect.
The sect, on the other hand, is the principle of subjective per-
sonal truth and unity, and of the evangelical standards without
compromise. At the same time the sect renounces universalism,
which it can only restore by having recourse to force, which is
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 381
contrary to all the Gospel standards, or it feels driven to take
refuge in eschatology. On the other hand, however, in the sect
the individual puts the Gospel into practice, also in its social
consequences of radical individualism and of brotherly love,
which is not hindered by any attachment to art or science, or
indeed to culture in any form. The sect is the more mobile and
subjective, the truer and more inward principle, because it is at
the same time more exclusive and more powerful, and it is
firmly based upon the literal interpretation of the Gospel.
A third type — that of a religious individualism which has no
external organization, and which has a very independent attitude,
with widely differing views of the central truths of Christianity —
only emerges as a foreshadowing of coining developments in this
interplay of Church and Sect.
In the modern world Christian social doctrines are in an
infinitely difficult situation: on the one hand, Christianity is no
longer undivided ecclesiastically, and it yet seeks the free spirit-
uality and adaptability of the Church, without the binding guar-
antees of ecclesiasticism ; while on the other hand, in spite of its
position based on subjective conviction and a voluntary theory
and vital ethical verification, it still cannot tolerate the radical
lack of culture, the c ‘conventicle-like 5 ’ narrowness which is bound
up with the social reform of the sect, and its literal interpretation
of the Gospel.
It is neither Church nor sect, and has neither the concrete
sanctity of the institution nor the radical connection with the
Bible. Combining Christian ideas with a wealth of modern views,
deducing social institutions, not from the Fall but from a process
of natural development, it has not the fixed limit for concessions
and the social power which the Church possesses, but also it does
not possess the radicalism and the exclusiveness with which the
sect can set aside the State and economics, art and science.
Full of the sense that to-day it still does represent the highest
ethical ideals of humanity, it is still unable easily to formulate for
itself the unwritten social programme which the Gospel contains,
nor to apply it clearly to the conditions which oppose it. Gradually,
in the modern world of educated people, the third type has come
to predominate. This means, then, that all that is left is voluntary
association with like-minded people, which is equally remote
both from Church and sect . 197
Alongside of this type the Churches are working with the ideals
of past ages, in which they, as spiritual or actual rulers in the
197 See p. 445.
382 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
State and in Society, were able to direct both according to their
view of a Christian universal society.
Alongside of the Churches, however, there are the sects which
build up a Christian society in exclusive Pietistic groups, which
lead a strictly ethical life in an alien world.
It is only from the history of the Christian social doctrines that
it is possible to understand this difficult situation, which is felt
by every honest soul.
At this point in our inquiry we have been anticipating. But this
anticipatory glance into the future throws a real light upon the
whole. For the immediate historical questions also it makes the
situation clear.
It explains the disintegration of the later Middle Ages, since in
them that divergence of view began to appear. We can perceive
also that the new formation of the Reformation which arose out
of this great ferment was immediately confronted by this fateful
question: Church or Sect?
It has deliberately held firmly to the church-type, and with
that to the idea of a unified Christian civilization and a Christian
order of Society. In so doing, the churches of the Reformation
have preserved a fundamental feature of Catholicism, and to a
great extent they have effected this with precisely the same
methods which Catholicism had formed for this purpose.
But the sect-type also exerted a certain influence upon the
thought of the Reformation, since in the Biblicism of the Reformers
the germ of the sect-idea which the Bible contained began to
stir and to make its presence felt. It conditioned both the inner
tensions of its conception of the Church and of its ethic, as well
as the breaking away of purely sectarian and mystical-individual-
istic groups. The new social doctrines of Protestantism can only
be understood when it is realized that they are the direct outcome
of the Christian social doctrines which had been developed during
the Middle Ages.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
383
NOTES TO CHAPTER II
80a (p. 1204.) The reason for this defect is that St. Thomas himself developed
his social theories in a purely literary scholarly manner from Aristotle, and in
a purely ideological moral way out of the requirements of ethics, with a
remarkable ignoring of the practical conditions, both political and social, by
which he was surrounded — above all, that of the feudal system and the agrarian
economy. But in reality this is only an illusion. His whole undertaking pre-
supposes the unity of civilization as it had then become ; his fundamental idea
is based upon the theory of a social hierarchy, and his Aristotelian Natural-Law
theory is actually to a great extent adapted to existing conditions, in connection
with which the Law of Nature seems tolerably well adapted to the Christian
ideal. All this seems to St. Thomas quite obvious. These obvious matters,
however, need to be historically explained. That which is here offered is an
attempt in this direction.
84 (p. 208.) For the eagerness to press into the episcopate, especially on the
part of the decurions who belonged to the old and well-to-do families, that is,
of the urban officials who were responsible for the assessment, and whose office
was compulsory and inherited, see Loning : Gesch. des deutschen Kirchenrechtes , /,
1878 , pp. 148 ff. In this way they tried to evade their exacting obligations. In
general it was the wealthy classes which were most eager to enter the epis-
copate ( ibid.,p . 152), In order to combat this tendency, therefore, there were
repeated State laws, attempts to limit the number of ecclesiastical offices,
instructions to recruit the clergy from the ranks of the monastic orders.
86 (p. 209.) For the transference of the disciplinary authority from the com-
munity to that of the bishop, and its transformation into a verdict passed in
the name of God, and its effect on the relation to God and not to the com-
munity, see Loning , I, pp. 254 ff., 265 ff. Without the Sacrament of Penance there
could be no real comprehensive discipline, also the result of the social boycott
only gradually became attached to the excommunication by the Church.
In Gaul there was the custom of a weekly private confession, with readiness to
take over the penitential duties as a method for the spiritual discipline of the
population; only then was there laid the foundation of the Sacrament of
Penance, the real ecclesiastical method of domination ( Hauck : K . G.Deutschlands ,
/, 275 , and Karl Muller : K.G . , I, 1892, pp. 313-15).
87 (p. 212.) For both the last sections cf. (in addition to the third pari of the
first chapter) the excellent presentation of the subject by Loning: Gesch. des
deutschen Kirchenrechtes , I, 1878, the first volume of which gives a very clear
and able account of the post-Constantine Church. Cf. also in particular
chapter I, pp. 20-102 , and the sections about the share of the bishops in civil
life and in the public administration of the law ( pp . 289-331) ; a specially
uncertain point in the system is the method of electing bishops; the early
congregational principle and the new authoritative universal Church principle
came into conflict, just as later on the uncertainty which surrounded the papal
election before the office of cardinal had been created signified one of the
weakest and obscurest points in the sociological system. Illustrations of the
work done by the bishops for civilization, and their entry into social and public
legal functions, from the Gallic Church in Hauck : K.G . Deutschlands, I, igiff.;
for the opposition of the ascetics to this development (pp. 76-80). Hauck shows
also how casual and external was this entry of the bishops into social and
384 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
political work ; the real consequence of the Christian idea, as it then came to
be felt, is represented by Salvian,p. 70 , who requires, where possible, through the
leaving of all possessions to the Church, the holding of property in common,
and otherwise detachment from the world. He has no misgivings about the
practicability of carrying out the material aspect of the question, and, on the
other hand, this does not mean that the social policy of the bishops is established
by granting that the realization of the Christian idea in life means a greater
concern for the natural basis of life. On the two classes of bishops in the Gallo-
Roman Church, the worldly political kind and the ascetic and genuinely
Christian kind, cf. also Lotting, I, i2off.
87a (p. 213.) For example, Seeberg : Lehbuch der Dogmengeschichte, II, 1898, p. 2:
“The spirit of the Greek Church had no mediaeval period ; for it never advanced
beyond the problems raised by Origen (?) ; that is to say, the Greek Church
never had any St. Augustine. We can treat the whole mediaeval D.G. as the
history of Augustinianism. 55 I believe rather that the special character of the
Middle Ages in the West in its politico-social development is the decisive factor
also for its ethico-spiritual fundamental character. Over against the purely
dialectical-ideological conception of the historians of Church and Dogma a little
“Marxism” must be permitted here Augustinianism forms only a specially
important method for mastering the problems which arose out of this develop-
ment, and that only finally in close connection with the help of Aristotelianism,
which was quite alien to the thought of Augustine. The task of the following
pages is to make this plain.
89 (p. 218.) On this point cf. von Schubert: Die Entstehung der Schleswig -
Holsteimschen Landeskirche , 1895 , with a very valuable introduction on the
significance of the Territorial Church period in Western Catholicism. The
second volume of the Lehrbuch der KG., by the same author, I was unfortunately
unable to use. Loning: G. d. deutschen Kirchenrechtes , II, 1878 , contains only the
Merovingian Church, which, however, still forms the basis of the whole;
here the whole chapter which deals with the public functions of the bishop
is of importance (pp. 220-275 ) ; Houck's magnificent Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands
contains a remarkable amount of detailed material in the first three volumes.
The KG. by Karl Muller, 1 , 1892, which lays a great deal of stress on the main
features of the institutions, emphasizes the lasting significance of Charlemagne
( p . 355, and especially^. 359) : “There remained the union of Church and State,
that of the institutions through which Christianity was really able to become
the popular religion, and the Church after long centuries of labour was able
to reach its goal within its borders. Charlemagne prescribed to the State the
great new tasks of humanity, which the Germanic past had not known, and
yet he did not essentially enlarge the group of duties which had to be discharged
immediately by the State and its officials. For as he had learnt his task from
the Church, which in that w^as to some extent the heir of the ancient Empire,
so also he had left the fulfilment of its task in its hands, only placing it at his
disposal, while at the same time for the same end he endowed it with a large
number of powers in the State. Under his successors the remembrance of both
in Church and State disappeared. In course of time the Church laid claim to
those tasks and methods which it had disposed of as a Divine institution, and in
so doing she set herself against the State. It is characteristic of the beginning of
the new (that is, of the modern) day, that the State realizes once more that
these ends are its own concern, and that it strives to carry them out in practice
by means of its own methods through its own officials.” For the continuance of
the Carolingian basic ideas until the Gregorian Revolution, see HauckJII, 435,
MedIaeVaL caTholIci&M 383
and even uiidei- Heinrich III, p. 57s', for the canonization of Charlemagne
through Barbarossa, see IV, p. 264. For the completely similar ' ‘interpenetra-
tion of Church and State’’ in England till 1066, sec Bohmet : Kirche und Staat
in England, i8go , pp. 48-56, — A view similar to that of K. Muller is taken by
K. Lamprecht: Deutsche Geschichte , II, i8g2,p. 48: “In reality, if we take a bird’s-
eye view of the closing mediaeval period, we see that it was Charlemagne who
achieved the admirable feat of so uniting the inteiests of the Church and the
world that it was only possible to sever this unity after centuries of severe
conflict, from the days of Gregory to the time of Luther.” P. 45: “The signifi-
cance and importance of Charlemagne, and indeed of the Carolingian State,
and of the Carolingian civilization in general, consisted precisely in this : that
universally and dispassionately it began to gather up the very varied influences
which affected the life of that day, and then began to combine them into that
form which became the character of the mediaeval period . . . finally, the Church
took over the work of reconciliation, and it is to the credit of Charlemagne that
it was he who first of all obliged the Church to take up the position of a mediator
in a permanent way.” For the continuance of these fundamental features,
4 ‘of this kind of endosmosis of Church and State” during the reigns of the Ottos,
see pp. 151 ff . — For the similar conditions in France, which only lagged behind
Germany at first, but which, after the unity of France had been effected,
outstripped Germany in all cultural matters and finally also in the political
sphere, see Rambaud: Histoire de la civilisation frangaise, I, igoi , in which a magnifi-
cent systematic survey is given of all points affecting the history of civilization. —
In this connection also we ought to mention Uhlhorn’s Liebestatigkeit ; Vol. II of
this work describes the social and economic development of the Middle Ages
as the background of Christian thought. Uhlhorn emphasizes the fact that
Christianity had ceased to be mainly a religion of the town, and that this
meant that charity was no longer a specially organized activity of the Church.
The work of charity, stimulated in this direction by Charlemagne, became
transformed into the social care of the Bishops and Abbots (p. 61) for the
dependents upon their estates, and in the general service of the Empire, and,
further, in the special organization of hospitals with widespread general social
functions; the latter organizations then came into the hands of the monks,
and also into those of special knightly and burgher Orders for the service of
the sick and wounded. At the same time the social activity of the Church,
i.e. of the executive authority of the Church, did not cease ; it continued, along
with the care of tenants and of political dependents, as Hauck, IV, 52-55,
proves in opposition to Uhlhorn . Uhlhorn also emphasizes that fact that it was
only in this way that Christianity was able to Christianize Society at all, in
contrast with its aloofness from Society in the Roman world {p. 5 ) , without,
however, analysing the reasons for this change in greater detail; he simply
says that the Germans “assimilated Christianity in a deeper way than the
Greeks and the Romans could do, who had grown up in the atmosphere of
paganism” ( p . 6). The careful analysis of Hauck, however, proves that this
cannot in any way be said to be true of the very eudaemonistic and legally
coarsened Christianity before the time of St. Bernard. The reasons for this lie
in the uncivilized character of the Germans, and in the establishment of the
Church as the mediator of civilization thiough the Carolingian idea of the
State. — Hauck gives illustrations of episcopal charity of this kind about Bernard
of Hildesheim, III, gg6 ; similarly, pp. 410, 414 , 438. A sign of such care is the
legal system of the bishop Burchard of Worms, who in the Name of the Trinity,
and on a basis of agreement with all the groups under his rule, establishes a
VOL. I BB
386 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
civil law and a system of penalties, which is designed, without respect of persons,
to give also the poor the benefit of a good and just law (cf. Gengler; Das Hof r edit
des B. Bur chard, 1859). Under the Ottos nine-tenths of all market rights, together
with trade rights and rights over the coinage, were in the hands of the bishops
( Lamprecht , IV, 99). For England, see Bohmer,p . 55 : “The aim was not only the
outward prestige of the Church, but also the control and guidance of all classes
of the Christian people” according to the “Law of God”. In order to effect
this, however, it was not desired to increase the separation between the two,
but rather to effect a new and more intimate fusion between Church and
State, and the clergy were required to evince as much ardour in carrying out
the law of the land as in carrying out the “laws of God”. Rut after the intro-
duction of the monastic reform movement there was a still greater effort to
dominate both public and private life with the spirit of religion” (p. 60 ). —
This social activity for the public good consisted mainly in the fight against
evil and injustice by means of a combined ecclesiastical and secular administra-
tion of justice, in the urgent endeavour to secure righteous dealing, in the
administration of the civil law, in th£ establishment of schools, and in the
healing of suffering in institutions for the service of the distressed. The real
heart of the matter, the prophylactic shaping of political and social conditions,
so that evil shall not arise, and which seeks the basis of a morally sound society
primarily in a way of life which is sound and healthy from the legal, social, and
economic point of view, is lacking. Thought about political and economic
questions was still far too undeveloped to be able to see things in this way, and
from the very outset there was no idea that all that is ethical and spiritual is
dependent upon the nature of the natural basis of life. — The book by von
Eicken {pp. 169-30 7) naturally considers this endosmosis. But it is precisely
here that one sees the forced and untrue character of his presuppositions ; he
tries to explain dialectically the civilization of the Church directly from the
nature of the “ascetic-hierarchical” idea. Hence he does not see in the
Carolingian idea of civilization that which it really was : the welding together
of secular and sacred interests, from which alone the civilization of the Church
could proceed, the compulsion which the State exerted upon the Church in
order to make her receive secular and social interests into her own life, but,
on the contrary, he regards it from the point of view of a logical development
as the first step in the absorption of the life of the world through the dialectic
of the priestly ascetic ideal, which subordinates everything to salvation and to
the Church. In reality, however, the very opposite was the case ! The primary
impulse here was given by events and not by theories. Harnack : Dogmengesch .,
Ill , 299, accepts Eicken’ s arguments in general, but adds very rightly; “The
Church, however, only developed her aggressive character after Charlemagne
had shown her how the Vicarius Christi should reign on earth. Nicolas I learned
from Charles I, and the Gregorian Popes learned from Otto I, Henry II, and
Henry III, how the rector ecclesiae should exercise his office.”
90 (p. 219.) For this adoption of a new idea of the State and of the nature
of royalty, cf. the illustrations in R. W. and A. J. Carlyle: A History of Mediaeval
Political Theory , pp . 214 ff. Hence in the Carolingian period the patristic theories
of the State recede, and in their place there arises a far more positive and
active idea of the character of the State. At the same time the patristic formulas,
when they are used, remain externally the same, but they appear rarely, and
they have a new coefficient, until at the time of the Gregorian conflict they
again come into frequent use (p. 198). Otherwise this idea retains the Stoic-
Christian doctrines of the Primitive State and the original universal equality of
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 387
humanity, also the position with regard to slavery, the latter, however, is a
good deal softened; the practice of enslaving non-Christian prisoners of war
continues without question (Hauck, I, 143, 932, 54?; II, 89, 339), The practice
of turning freemen and serfs into slaves raises no scruples from the Christian
point of view. All this is held to proceed from the Natural Law of the fallen
State, and from the laws which it is the duty of the Christian to obey. To this
extent everything was still going on on the old lines. But the rise of the State
out of the condition of fallen humanity is regarded much more positively, in
accordance with reality, and its Germanic origin, and now absolutely as a
direct appointment of God ; this point of view is considerably strengthened by
the influence of the coronation ceremonies and the consecration of the Emperor.
The Old Testament now begins to play its part, with its references to the
anointing of David, whereas the Early Church, which regarded these things
from the point of view of the New Testament, could only follow Paul in mere
toleration of the State. Political social necessities found their justification in
the Old Testament when the New Testament failed them (ibid., pp. 216 ff.).
96 (p. 225.) This represents Lamprechfs view of the historical aspect of the
subject; Hauck deals rather with the personal relations of individual Emperors
and Popes, and with the personal qualities of Hildebrand (III, 616) , with the
idealistic glorification of the Papacy which was combined with the position of
the Empire (III, 537), with the increasing popularity of the demand for the
recognition of the Canon Law, which had been depreciated actually in Rome
itself by the pre-Cluniac Popes (III, 363) ; he says that Henry III, who repeated
Charlemagne’s action with the opposite effect, was tragically self-deceived
54 2 ) •
98 (p. 226.) Of these three dogmas the first two are usually left to the sphere
of Church order and Church History, and the sacraments to the history of
worship, by Protestant historians of dogma. Harnack’s brilliant History of Dogma ,
which still dominates the research on this question, does, it is true, transfer the
main emphasis from the sphere of dialectic development to that of psychological
explanation. But we need to go farther on this line, and realize that it is precisely
the modern sociological research and discoveries which here considerably
enlarge the range of psychological conditions for the formation of thought.
Church law and ritual need to be included in the history of dogma — at least
so far as the Catholic Church is concerned — for in both these spheres there lie
the chief roots of dogma. The worship of Christ and the Christian Sacrament
of Holy Communion preceded the doctrine of Christ in the Early Church,
and to a great extent conditioned it. The same holds good of the law of the
Church. A purely intellectual conception of the Faith is much less important
than people think. When the churches are studied sociologically, however, it is
then precisely that it becomes plain that the cultus provides the real means of
unity, and the system of law the form of unity ; it is only natural that these
fundamental sociological elements should be reflected above all in dogma,
and that the purely logical theoretical speculative elements rather accompany
the whole system as the special concern and interest of the theological experts.
A purely intellectual religion in which worship and Church order are of merely
incidental significance only came in with the rise of Protestantism; but Catholi-
cism contains ritual and law as essential, and perhaps indeed as decisive,
elements of religion; we shall see later on that the sociological element of
cultus and law is developed much less fully within Protestantism. Catholic
history of dogma, therefore, includes both these dogmas within its sphere
(cf. Schwane: D ogmengeschichte der mittleren 1882), and unites them with its
3 88 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
doctrine of the sacraments to form its complete ecclesiastical theory. This
theory and the doctrine of sin and of grace are then said to constitute the
decisive mediaeval promulgation of dogma in general ; at the same time both
groups are very closely connected, for the doctrine of the sacraments is only
another aspect of the doctrine of sin and grace, it is only the doctrine of grace
in its concrete form. On the other hand, the great theological and philosophical
systems with which the Protestant history of dogma is mainly concerned, are
merely attempts to unify and mediate the dogma of the Church, attempts to
reconcile it with civilization and culture in generator reflections upon dogma —
in themselves they are not dogma at all. Of the three chief dogmas which
have been named, the second, which is the one which gives modern Catholicism
the most trouble, is only treated superficially by Schwane .
99 (p. 229.) Cf. Dollinger: Das Papstlum, 1892, who ( p . 37) says that from the
time of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals the tendency towards the universal
episcopate was the really decisive factor, and therefore lays the main emphasis
on the fact that this was a great contrast to the view of the Early Church, and
that only by a thorough correction of its traditions could it be shown to be
historically correct. There is no doubt about the truth of the latter statement,
but there is also no doubt that the Gregorian movement and the Pseudo-
Isidorian Decretals also arise out of the very nature of the situation. Schwane* s
position is reconciling as far as possible (pp. 494-579 ) (in this section he presents
the development of doctrine until 1215); he deals with the doctrine of St.
Thomas ( pp . 539-547 ), pointing out that the universal episcopate is, at least in
theory, limited by the independent authority of the bishops, which is only
directed by the Pope ; in practice, however, in spite of this, the ruling authority
of the Pope is universal and direct {p. 542). The idea of the universal episcopate
is fully developed in the Summa de ecclesia of Torquemada , pp . 567-574. That,
however, this was already the meaning of the Gregorian system is dealt with
by Hauck , III, 763-766 ; the episcopate is vicariae dispensation is mums, p. 764.
Cf. also Hauck, IV, 164, decision of the second Lateran Synod, 1 139, that the
Pope invests the bishops with their authority ; and the opinion that while a see
is vacant the episcopal authority returns to the Pope {IV, 725) ; the explicit
declarations of Innocent III and the promulgation of his law book without
the co-operation of the bishops, and the characteristic statement: “In tanturn
apostolicae sedis extenditur autoritas, ut nihil praeter ejus auctoritatem in
cunctis ecclesiarum negotiis rationabiliter disponatur”, (. IV, 7 29 f !) correspond-
ing changes in the method of electing bishops. On the establishment of the
universal episcopate, see also Karl Muller: KG., 1, 561, and Mirbt: Publizislik,
559~57 2* On the Canon Law as the universal law of Christendom, see von Eicken,
548-588, who, however, here also exaggerates when he says that the spiritual
law is the only logical form of law from the standpoint of the Church. It was
always a question of the law of the State and the law of the Church alongside
of each other, which indeed often caused friction. The theologians also em-
phasize explicitly that in this doctrine first of all there was attained the “unity
of society” {Schwane, 539, 547, 567). Schwane himself says, p. 533: “The . . .
history of the Papacy during the earlier part of the Middle Ages is not like
the history of other human societies, and cannot be explained mainly from the
physical, material, and intellectual energy of their supporters, but it presents
the growth of a distinct idea, ever developing more richly, and under special
and supernatural control and direction, which was instituted by Christ the
Lord and incorporated in St. Peter, but which also lives on in the faith of the
whole of Christendom, and in this faith it gains an ever clearer expression,”
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 389
This is the idea of the priesthood and of the hierarchy. On this point, step. 5 18 :
“The constitution is based upon the difference between the clergy and the
laity, instituted by Christ Himself, or upon the hierarchy which He has
Himself appointed as the support of the teaching, priestly [i.e. sacramental]
and pastoral office and authority, since in the Church all the governing and
saving power comes not from below, from the people, but from above, from
Christ the Lord, and this grace is conferred either through a sacrament,
directly from Christ Himself, or through the authoritative statement of the
representative appointed by Christ, namely, through the supreme Head of
the Church.” The stages in the sociological process are quite clear : the mystical
Christ, the priest-bishop, the diocesan bishop, the Papal bishop. It is also plain
what measure of unification has been attained : the priesthood is based upon
the sacraments and comes from Christ, the bishop and the Pope owe their
authority to a positive declaration, and their ultimate source of authority is
the Apostle-Prince Peter ; all that is fully unified is the teaching and governing
authority of the Pope, the sacramental authority belongs to the priest in virtue
of his ordination, but it is controlled by the authority of the bishop, and he in
turn is controlled by the Pope. This, however, is considered a sufficient basis
for uniformity; the absorption of the sacramental authority by the Papacy
was not necessary, and the complete absorption of the ruling and teaching
authority was only attained by the Vatican, although in theory it was always
required from the days of Gregory VII.
100 (p. 231.) For the demand for freedom arising out of the demand for unity
see Hauck: KG., III , 766-769, 804 , 899, 898. In my opinion Hauck underestimates
the logical necessity of the idea. — This is brilliantly treated by Gierke: Genossen-
schaftsrecht , III, 515-545, and also in a similar manner by Hoensbroech: Moderner
Staat und Romische Kirche , 1906. — For the acceptance of Gregorianism in England,
see the instructive book by H. Bohmer : Kirche und Staat m England und in der
Normandie im ir. und 12. Jahrh., 1899. “ ‘Gregorianism 5 is the view that the
Church ought legally to possess full autonomy, and the closely related dogma
that the Papacy is divinely called to dominate the world. 55 On the question
of continuity he says : “Both meet us first of all within the sphere of the former
Frankish Imperial Church. Pseudo-Isidore already demands the full autonomy
of the Church, and the subordination of the laity to the clergy as a whole.
Benedict Levita had already raised the question of the property rights of the
founders and of the possessors of the churches in the property of the Church
as a whole, and in Nicholas I there appears for the first time a Pope who
desires to be not only the lord of the Church, but also the supreme ruler over
all the kingdoms of this world, and who acts in accordance with this claim.
Like the theocratic idea, so there arises also at the same time, as a result of the
Carolingian Renaissance, also the hierarchical view of the relation between
Church and State. But the political upheavals which took place after the ninth
century, the attacks of the Normans and of the Saracens, the development of
the German monarchy and of the great feudal dominions in France, and the
subjection of the Curia to the supremacy of the nobility of Rome, acted as
hindrances to the progress of the hierarchy. Only about the middle of the
eleventh century were these “intervening authorities 55 either overcome or
weakened, and at the same time the moral power of the hierarchy increased
to such an extent that it was able to assert and realize the claims which had
never been forgotten since the days of Nicholas I. In Germany this movement
was supported by the Saxons and by a revolution among the princes, and in
France by the strongly ecclesiastical bent of the ruling classes 55 (pp. iff-)- That
39 o THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
already in the Early Church the demand for autonomy produced the idea of
theocracy also, but had no practical effect, is brought out by Loning : Gesch. des
deutschen Kirchenrechts , 7, and also above. For the doctrine of St. Thomas, that
the secular authority was only indirectly controlled by the Church, through
the control of all matters which refer to spiritual interests, see Jomdain: La
j phtlos. de St. Thomas , 7, 1854 , pp. 423-428. St. Thomas, however, also lays it
down that in case of doubt the Church decides; cf. De regimine pi incipum, 7, 15,
and von Eicken , 377 . — For the theoretical view that this demand for autonomy,
and therefore of sovereignty, belongs to the nature of a religion which is based
upon universal principles and truths, in contrast to the more limited cults of
the Ancient World, and that such a religion, when it has developed into a
church, must produce the demand for the supremacy of the Church and of the
priesthood, cf. K. Rieker: Der Ursprung von Staat mid Kirche in the Festschrift fur
Emil Friedberg , 190S, and Troeltsch : Religion und Kirche , Preuss , Jahb ., 1835.
At this point modern Catholicism has greatly spiritualized its Church law ;
cf. U. Stutz * Die kirchliche Rechtsgeschichte , 7905. Modern Catholicism is dis-
tinguished from that of the Gregorian *or mediaeval period by the fact that it
renounces all claim to temporal power, and has become a purely spiritual
cultural principle of progress ; cf. Ehrhard: Der Katholizismus und das 20. Jahrh .,
1302. But it still insists on the spiritual supremacy of the world, and in order
to effect this it will scarcely be able to renounce the use of material methods
altogether, at least in questions of education, and of those which affect the
Church within the State. The mediaeval supremacy of the Pope was not
merely a form of spiritual sovereignty over the world in the midst of widespread
barbarism, when such civilization as there w^as, was most undeveloped, but it
was the logical result of the idea which it will scarcely be possible to induce
modern Catholicism to give up, as is rightly emphasized by Hoensbroech.
The political aspect of the Catholic Church, about which so much complaint
is made, and which, in its results, is so great a danger to the Church herself,
is still the inevitable result of her whole sociological theory. Even in the
spiritualized Church-order of the present day the practical result of the idea
of the Church is the exercise of influence on the authority of the State through
the Catholic democracy, in order that at least in the schools, and in the
autonomy of the ecclesiastical administration, Catholic supremacy may be
maintained. Even American Catholicism, which seems to be so completely
severed from the mediaeval system, still seeks to gain control in municipal
affairs, in order that, at least in popular education, it may have the State
on its side; cf. Houtin: Uamericanisme.
100a (p. 234.) Cf. Schwane , 573-643, whence one understands the central
importance of these doctrines of cultus and dogma for the whole system of
the ecclesiastical organism, together with the importance of the vast system of
apologetics and hair-splitting scholasticism, which is in accordance with the
importance of the object. Characteristically Hugo of St. Victor treated the
whole of theology from the point of view of the sacraments (p. 580 ). On the
continuity of this and the two former dogmas with the idea of the God-Man —
that is, with the fundamental doctrine of the Church — seep. 518: “The funda-
mental dogma which has been mentioned (i.e. that of the unity of the hierarchy)
is indissolubly connected with another : the dogma of the independence of the
Church alongside of and above the State, because she is in herself a society
which is self-contained, leading her own independent existence, which is based
upon the God-Man as her Foundation and Chief Corner-stone, has charge of
all that concerns the spiritual welfare of men, and is called to unite all men
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM
391
and all nations within her embrace.” The means of this dominion are the
sacraments, and therefore it is only fitting, and in harmony with the whole
idea, that they also, like the God-Man, should be composed of spiritual and
sense elements. P. 583: “The healing of fallen humanity through the sacra-
ments corresponds both to the physician, who is the Son of God manifest in the
flesh, and also to the nature of that which is to be healed, which is composed
both of body and soul.” Also on A 583 : “That the form consists in the words
of consecration is very characteristic of the Christian sacraments, because they
are thus an image of their founder, the God-Man, in whom the personal Word
of God, especially with a visible body, was hypostatically united with human
nature.” It is the ecclesiastical doctrine of Redemption, which combines very
closely together the sacraments, the priesthood, and Christology in a unity of
sense elements combined with that which is supersensible; in the East this
doctrine developed in the direction of mysticism, while in the West it worked
out along the lines of the training of the will, the ennobling of the will, of the
impartation of spiritual strength, knowledge of sin, humility, and the control
of the will of the individual and its guidance by the Church. Hence it comes
to pass that with the Sacrament of Penance there is combined an immensely
complicated system of jurisdiction. For the first rough method of jurisdiction,
excommunication in the Gregorian sense, which involved a civil boycott as
well, see Dollinger: Papsttum,pp. 53 ff.; even an unjust sentence of excommunica-
tion is greatly to be feared, and one who has been thus treated is not to be
received (p. 54), according to Urban II and Gratian it is not murder to kill
those who have been excommunicated, if it is done out of zeal for the Church
( p . 58) ; according to Nicholas I and Gratian everyone who has been excom-
municated is a heretic (p. 59) ; in the year 1337 half of Christendom was under
sentence of excommunication, the episcopal officials excommunicated 10,000
souls at a sitting ; in every parish there were thirty, forty, and even seventy
persons excommunicated ( p . 81) ; Gregory XI excommunicated into the seventh
generation ( p . 82). For the transition from this system of jurisdiction, which
was connected with the penitential practices of the Early Church in for 0 externo
into the far more effective system of the Sacrament of Penance, which was
connected with confession and the practice of making satisfaction for sin, into
the jurisdiction in foro interno, see Loofs: Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmen -
geschichte z , 1832, p. 258, On the turning of absolution into a sacramental
priestly act, see if. Muller : Der Umschwung in der Lehre von der Busse im 12.
Jahrh. Theol, Abhh. , dedicated to Weizs acker, 1832. To what extent this trans-
formation is connected with the hierarchical tendency of the Church is not
here examined ; I can only venture on a surmise. Cf. also K. Muller: KG I,
574 ff* with the closing sentence : “Otherwise during the Middle Ages among
the laity the use of the Sacrament of Penance did not go much beyond the
annual obligatory confession, unless there were special circumstances which
caused it to be used somewhat oftener” (p. 576). The granting of indulgences
was, however, connected with the preparatory Sacrament of Penance, and
thus the extension of the practice of this sacrament also served to increase
greatly the system of indulgences. The practice of penitence and confession
was, however, only fully developed during the period of the Counter-
Reformation. — On the difficulties and the significance of the doctrine of the
sacraments for the final development of the conception of the Church, cf.
Mirbt : Publizitdt , pp. 424-446.
102 (p. 236.) On this international civilization, cf. Hauck: KG.Deutschlands,III
und IV; K. Muller: KG., 1, 463-585; H. Reuter: Geseh. Alexanders III und der Kirche
392 THE SOGIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
seiner Z&, 1860-64; Bohmer : Kirche und Staat in England, pp. 405-41 1, according to
Robert Pullen, 417, and John of Salisbury, 421-426; Lamprecht : DG Bd. Ill
und IV; von Eicken: Geschichte und System der mittelalterlichen Weltanschauung, 1887;
Rambaud: Hist, de la civilisation ft angaise, I, 308-458 . From the point of view of
the sovereignty of the Pope, this civilization certainly had a strongly juridical
and diplomatic character, which meant that on this side of things the Church
was concerned only with the autonomy of the Church, the extension of the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over as many spheres as possible, the supremacy of
the Pope in the Church, and the subordination in principle of the secular
powers, without the implication that the ruling of the world according to the
ethical standards of the Church was the direct motive and the actual effect.
This undertaking of the Papal supremacy was bound up, however, with the
international tendencies, especially those which emanated from France, the
ascetic movements, the centralized developments of the Religious Orders,
ecclesiastical law, the universities and theology, and thus this Papal supremacy
constitutes at the same time the spiritual-ethical standard of a Christian
civilization, and it thus justifies in its own eyes its compulsory methods. Further,
it is implied that this supremacy of the Faith and of the Church brings also,
as a matter of course, an ethical improvement and a higher standard of life.
On the compulsory character of this civilization, see Bollinger: Papsttum , 114-
117; K. Muller : KG., I, 556-555, 588-552, and, above all, H. Ch . Lea: A History
of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, New York , 1888; for the nature of this com-
pulsion, which was not always direct, cf. H. Reuter: Gesch. der Aufklamng im MA
1875-77. — The literary and ideal sources of these cultural ideas were Augustine,
Gregory the Great, and Pseudo-Isidore, although to a great extent they were
due first of all to the quite definite historical situation. But it would be an error
to say, as von Eicken does, that this civilization was the direct result of the ideas
expressed in the Civitas Dei of St. Augustine. In the mind of Augustine the
Civitas Dei was not a spiritual and temporal unity of civilization ; on the con-
trary, it was conceived as a purely ecclesiastical community, strongly opposed
to the State and the interests of the State; indeed, in theory the Church is
regarded simply from the point of view of the community of the “elect”, and
it is only in practice that it becomes identified with the sacramental objective
Church. This spiritual point of view has no relation with the world, but
alongside of it there is the Lex Naturae, which is recognized as the independent
principle of the secular values of utility. When Augustine — especially in his
writings against the Donatists — requires the consecration of the State by its
service to the Church, his aim is essentially to claim the Imperial authority
for the support of the Church against pagans and heretics. The name Civitas
Dei, however, which leads so many to conclude that it means the life of the
State organized by the Church ( Lamprecht lias gone very far astray on this
point; cf. DG.1,307: “The brilliant structure of a Christian State” !) does not
mean this at all. Gregory was the first to take this idea of the Civitas Dei and
de-spiritualize it, and finally it was identified with the sacramental priestly
Church, combined, by means of a semi-Pelagian compromise, with the natural
life according to the Lex Naturae ; otherwise, in the absence of a strong Govern-
ment, the Church took control of the secular life of the day so far as her own
sphere was concerned, but this was not regarded as the duty of the Emperor
controlled by the Pope. Cf. Vossler: Dante, I, 395-400; Loofs: Grmdriss des DG.,
242-248. Pseudo-Isidore goes farther, and in order to free the bishops from
the authority of their metropolitans the universal monarchy of the Papacy was
developed; this, however, does not yet mean the idea of an ecclesiastical
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 393
civilization, but only the consequence of the development of the sacerdotal
Church. This idea of civilization only arose out of the co-operation of the
following influences : the new movement in favour of asceticism, the Gregorian
constitutional idea and the Romance-Ghristian culture, the great international
Orders, and the uniting of Christian Europe in the struggle against Islam;
before this could take place, however, the aversion of Early Christianity to
pagan civilization had to be overcome. This took place during the Territorial
Church period, when the State was only half-civilized and the Church was
comparatively civilized, and in any case far more advanced than the State,
and when, in this situation, the Church began to develop still farther her own
life and influence in the sphere of general culture. In literature dealing with
the Middle Ages, in my opinion, this fact is not sufficiently emphasized,
because it forms part of the assumptions of ordinary life ; this point of view
obtains also in the interpretation of the literature of the Early Church. Thus
it can even come to pass that the impression may be created that the Middle
Ages did not produce any kind of new ethical doctrine, as Th . Z^ e i^ er: Gesch . d.
Ethik , 77, pp. 242 and 280 , suggests, whereas in reality the mediaeval period
laid a new foundation, and therefore all its doctrines were affected by the
changed point of view. For the fact that, although the tradition of the Early
Church may seem to have been carried on, the whole world order had changed,
see the very pertinent remarks by Carlyle: Mediaeval Political Theory , 7, 197 jj.
ZuglePs view, that it is possible to present a study of the mediaeval ethic
without taking the concrete setting into account, is an error which has affected
his whole work very seriously. It misses the whole point in the situation, and
all he can say is to repeat continually the complaint that the Middle Ages
were so Roman Catholic. — The rise of the brilliant spiritual world of France,
and its union with the international supremacy of the Church, is a further
problem of culture and of Church History which has not yet been sufficiently
studied. In my opinion this was due in the main to the work of St. Bernard and
the Mendicant Orders.
103 (p. 237.) Thus von Eicken: Geschichte , u.s.w ., with certain limitations, also
Harnack: DG. 3 III 298: 4 4 Christianity is asceticism and the Divine State. 5 ’
“Flight from the world, in the service of the world-dominating Church, and
the domination of the world in the service of the renunciation of the world,
this was the problem and the ideal of the Middle Ages.” Von Eicken holds that
Christianity itself is a product of the Gnostic-dualistic doctrine of Redemption
of the Ancient World, which creates its personal Redeemer in Jewish-Christian
Messianism and in the suffering God-Man who raises the world. I believe that
in the previous pages of this present work I have made it plain that this is not
true of Primitive Christianity on the ethical and social side, and also that
this does not apply to the history of dogma. But, even if this point of view were
right as a starting-point, it would still be impossible to argue that the Middle
Ages as a whole can be interpreted from this standpoint. That a policy of
world domination cannot logically be developed out of asceticism, has been felt
by von Eicken himself, since he combines with asceticism the hierarchy (p. 133 ),
which is the logical result, not of asceticism, but of the sacramental idea, and
of the priesthood, and since he also admits that the hierarchy had adopted
the Roman Imperial idea (pp. 119 and 136 ) ; the development of theocracy,
however, was due entirely to the sociological consequence of the idea of the
Church, with its conception of Truth and of the Sacraments; it was only the
Papacy in its final form which looked back to the Empire, assisted, no doubt,
by the feeling of Italian nationalism, and also by Humanistic ideas. The
394 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
defect of the able work of von Eicken is (i) that it regards the movement of ideas
purely logically as the production of the whole by means of an all-embracing
dialectic (cf. p. 313), whereas in reality the whole matter, first of all, should
be regarded from the psychological point of view as the merging of various
elements, which are only partially controlled by the dialectic which proceeds
from the individual elements ; (ii) that he formulates the fundamental Christian
idea as asceticism without regarding the complicated and many-sided nature
of the conception, without examining the varied motions and meanings
of asceticism, and, above all, without noticing that the supernaturalism of
Christian thought is always fused with the Hebrew faith in the Creation, and
that in this combination in principle it asseited its own view against the
dualism of Gnosticism and asceticism, and, finally, that the tendency to
dominate the world which cannot be explained from asceticism itself is
explained by the accident of the acceptance of the Roman Imperial idea,
whereas it is precisely at this point that the predominating factor is not accident,
but the logical result of the whole theory ; in fact, the fundamental idea is not
asceticism. The statement on p. 334: “This vigorous assertion of the interests
of earthly existence forced the Church to allow these interests to have a certain
amount of scope in economic life, and in the life of the family, and of the
State ; this was, however, in opposition to the strict logic of the system,” is
not true at all of the Church herself, and only applies to certain expressions of
the ascetics themselves. The doctrine of the Lex Naturae (which will be described
shortly) and its insertion into Christian thought, is denied by him entirely,
especially the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, m spite of incidental quotations
from his teaching which are never given their right value. A mass of varied
quotations from all kinds of books does not assist us to attain an understand-
ing of the mediaeval “world outlook”, and, moreover, complaints about the
moral corruption of the rulers are no proof of the “Divine State” ; there are
just as many complaints about the corruption of the Church. In the Christian
idea itself, however, it is only the doctrine of Original Sin and the Devil
which makes room for mortification; everything else is imported dualism,
or religious excitement and exaggeration, or a means and a method for the
achieving of religious concentration, as which, indeed, “asceticism” is alone
recognized by the theory of the Church, cf. Rockier.' Kritische Geschichte d.
Ashes 1863.
10S (p. 241.) For the way in which monasticism became absorbed into the
ecclesiastical system, see Harnack: Gesch. des Monchtums^p. 41 ; numerous examples,
first of the conflict between monasticism and the Church in the Gallic Church,
then of the systematic subordination of monasticism under the bishops, and
finally under the Curia, in Hauck: K.G . Deutschlands . The Waldensian and
Franciscan movements, which are so closely akin to this whole development,
throw a great deal of light upon this subject. For the relation between monks
and priests according to Thomas A., see Grabmann; Z ur Lutherbiographie , Hist.
Polit . Blatter , igo6 , p. 111 : “Under the influence of Pseudo-Dionysius Thomas
answers, the question, ‘Who is in the state of perfection? 9 by saying that the
bishops and the members of the Religious Orders are in the state of perfection
and especially the bishops : the members of the Religious Orders, because
through their vows they are under the obligation to be ever striving after
perfection, and the bishops because they permanently exercise the pastoral
office, and the bishops in particular because they are active in the pursuit
of perfection (perfectores) , while the monks are merely receptive (perfecti)
(Ps. Dionysius), and because the active principle ranks higher than the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 395
receptive element (agens and paliens) (Augustine)”. . . . But when Thomas
compares the position of the members of the Religious Orders with the priestly
dignity and the sacerdotal character with reference to perfection, the priest
takes precedence over the non-ordained monk. . . manifestum est excellere
praeeminentiam ordims quantum ad dignitatem, quia per sacrum ordinem
aliquis deputatur ad dignissima ministeria, quibus ipsi Christo seivitur in
sacramento altaris ; ad quod requiritur major sanctitas interior quam requirat
etiam religionis status.”
108 (p. 242.) Cf. pellet: Vortrage und Abhandlungen , /, 1869, Der platonische Staat
in seiner Bedeutung fur die Folgezeit. The analogy between Christianity and
Platonism here reappears fiom the point of view of the sociological effect of
ethical religious thought. The predominance of religious and moral ideas leads
to the predominance of the philosophers and priests, and, as soon as a uniform
system of civilization shall arise, the supernatural character of the system can
only be asserted in the form which will give to the actual religious ideals a
definite position, while the secular tasks fall to the share of other classes in
Society, but they are placed under the strict control of the religious and ethical
ruling element. Because Christianity only developed into a unity of civilization
in the Middle Ages, then only did the sociological compaiison with Platonism
become evident, whereas in the Ancient World, when the Church was con-
fronted by a pagan world, the Stoic categories were called in to help. Here also
we see clearly the close affinity which exists between Christianity and Platonism,
and therefore the right they have to become more closely connected still.
On the other hand, however, I do not think that we can ascribe this similarity
to the fact, which Z e ^ er (A 75) seems to think possible, that the Church
developed further the Platonist ideas which she absorbed along with various
other ideas. The analogy is spontaneous.
109 (p. 243.) For the idea of the organism with its mutual vicarious services,
cf. Uhlhorn: Liebestatigkeit , II , 96, 197, 255, 269 ; here, for example, with reference
to the sick: “Sufferers are in their own way as much justified as others; they
form a class of their own, which is just as necessary for the whole, and serves the
whole just as much as other classes m Society”, namely, through vicarious
sufferings and through the opportunity which they give to others to exercise
mercy and charity to them. Bohmer: Kirche und Staat , according to Robert
Pullen, p . 419; “As representatives of God, prelates take the highest rank in
the universal human society which includes both the State and the Church,
and they are, therefore, called to rule over both the other sections of Christen-
dom, the monks and the layfolk.” For the question of mutual oblations of a
vicarious character in the attaining of merits, and in penitence within this
system, see Schwane : Dogmengeschichte , pp. 668-674, especially p . 669 : “Prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving are very special ways of offering satisfaction, because
their exercise requires a struggle against the senses, and therefore to some
extent it is something irksome which is opposed to natural human desires. . . .
If men are by nature members of a family, sanctified Christians are much more
intimately bound together with all other Christians as members of the Body of
Christ, so that both the good and the evil in an individual affect all the
others. . . .” In this sense also the performances of the monks are to be under-
stood; they are a vicarious realization of the ideal, through intercession and
vicarious oblations; cf. Grabmann: a.a.O 104 . “That in such Contemplative
Orders the spirit of the love of one’s neighbour is increased, and that the
prayer of intercession and the life of sacrifice practised in such monasteries is
the Christian love of one’s neighbour, can here only be suggested.” — For the
396 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THJ£ CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
division, and yet the unity, which under these circumstances is maintained, of
the Christian ideal of perfection, see Denijie : Luther und Luther turn-, 7 , i, 133-181 >
especially 179: “The perfection of the Christian life consists precisely in this:
that that commandment (of the love of God and one’s neighbour) should be
fulfilled as perfectly as possible, that is, so far as this is possible within the
conditions of this earthly existence, and within the various classes and sections
of Society.” This is opposed by Scheel in his explanation of the translation of
Luther’s work De votis monasticis , Luthers Werke , Erganzungsband 77 , Berlin , 1905;
Grabmann again is opposed to Scheel , cf. his book : Das clu istliche Lebensideal mch
Thomas , Hist. Polit. Blatter , 1906, pp. 1-27, 89-114, and TV*. Paulus: Z u Luthers
Schrift ilber die Mdnchsgelubde , Hist. Jahb . d. Gorres-Gesellschaft. igo6,pp. 487-916.
We do not need to concern ourselves further with this controversial literature.
From the purely historical point of view Catholic scholars are in any case right
when they assert that the supposed uniformity of the life-ideal which Pro-
testantism expects is not required by the official Catholic theory at all, that,
however, in spite of this the Catholic theory does preserve the spirit of uni-
formity, and that it certainly does not regard asceticism as the only ideal of
perfection. See Grabmann, pp. rorff. : “The fundamental error of the Protestants
is this, that they have a totally wrong conception of the uniformity of the ideal
of life, If we are dealing with the question of the uniformity of the Christian
ideal of life we mean an essential unity, but not one which can be measured
in a mechanical way (i.e. in a way which is the same for each individual).
Within the specifically unified life-ideal it is possible to have a great deal of
variety. But these differences and degrees do not mean that there is any real
difference in the nature of the ideal itself. These forms of realization of the
ideal again have their counterpart in Heaven (even Dante’s Paradise knew
ordered grades and degrees of bliss). Through obedience and chastity, or
rather through the spirit of loving surrender to God which lies behind these
virtues, the members of the Religious Orders have means at their disposal
which enable them to reach a certain stage in the specific uniform life-ideal.
But this does not mean that people living in the world cannot reach, by other
means, exactly the same stage of perfection.” P. gg: “The fact that the members
of the Religious Orders are obliged by their vows to strive after perfection
does not mean that other Christians are not under the obligation to strive
after perfection also, since it is a familiar fact that it is possible to take a vow
to do something to which one is already committed by the natural course of
events. The pursuit of perfection is for every Christian not a matter of free
choice but a duty. Both monks and nuns and lay people have to strive after
perfection, only the Religious have a clearer path to follow.” “The universal
ideal is the love of God and man, but the ways of realizing this ideal arc
different. Asceticism is a specially advantageous method, only acddentialiter
perfection consists in the Evangelical Counsels.” “Although the monastic life
is described as the ‘better part’, according to all the rules of logic it does not
follow that the laity belong to a worse, or at least to an inferior, class ( !)
It does not even follow that the monastic life is the best for all” (p. 100). We
must also note that these writers at the same time naturally admit the
existence of numerous “unilluminated” ascetics and ascetic writers, that a
class which is endowed with special means of attaining perfection only has
meaning when it is part of a system which has other complementary aspects,
and that the advantage of a method of perfection which, by its very nature
cannot, and should not, be utilized by all, represents the difficulty of Christian
supernaturalism in relation to secular values, and especially the fact that they
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 397
are absolutely opposed by real asceticism. But it is right to assert that in this
contradiction Catholicism ought not to be nailed down to the merely ascetic
side of the contradiction, as though this were the only logical aspect of the
problem. Catholicism is made up of the most heterogeneous elements (cf.
Hatnack: Mission , p. 223), as such great structures always will be. Thus we can
only accept with great reserve Harnack’s pronouncement in his Monchtum, p. 46 ,
that in the ascetic revival movements after Cluny within the Church there
could be only one life-ideal and one ethic, that to this ideal all mature Christians,
i.e. the clergy, were committed. Examples of the equal importance of secular
morality in Hauck , IV, 98 jf.
110 (p. 245.) Cf. Harnack : Monchtum DG., III, the sections on the Geschichte
der Frommigkeit, 296-306 and 364-491 ', Vossler: Dante , I, 80-99; *&• Muller: KG., I,
7 43-480; for the eschatological and eudae monistic motives for asceticism
as merit and as penitence during the whole of the earlier period of the Middle
Ages, see Uhlhorn : Liebestatigkeit , II, 122, 138; Bohmer : Staat und Kirche , p. 38;
Hauck: KG., II, 246, III, 346; Charlemagne and monasticism, II, 366, III, 342;
greater rigidity in the Roman asceticism, IV, 320 ff. For the period of St.
Bernard the best authorities are still Neander: Der h. Bernhatd und sein Zeitalter 2 ,
1848, and Liebner: Hugo v. St. Viktor, 1832 . If we come to these works fresh
from the customary view of “asceticism” of the Middle Ages, it is amazing to
note how little ascetic or monastic these people are ; the points they emphasize
chiefly are the cultivation of the spiritual life, edification, knowledge of
humanity, and self-knowledge, the awakening of the religious spirit, and along
with that there goes a strong emphasis upon charity, which must take pre-
cedence of the joys of contemplation, and which assumes that the special
calling of the monastic orders is to render service to the world; at the same
time the secular way of life is not attacked, but it is assumed that it will be
used in the true religious spirit; cf. JVeander , 41: “The love to Christ which
refers to the purely human element in Him, which Bernard regards as a stage
from which the soul will gradually advance to the love of God for His own
sake, which will include within it the love to all that is true and good.” It is
along this line that a mysticism heightened by asceticism can finally attain the
religious transfiguration of the world and of humanity, as we see most plainly
in St. Francis of Assisi. Or cf. Neander, 46 , who is quoting St. Bernard: “As it
is the purpose of the whole creation to glorify God, so this also is the aim of
religious development : to will everything only for the sake of God. Such a
spirit really means deification. Yet here below man can only live on these
heights for isolated moments”, that is, the deification of the secular sphere
on earth only fails because the religious element has not sufficient force to
penetrate it permanently. P . 30: “To him asceticism is a means, not an end.”
P . 33: “He began from the Christian point of view, that on account of the
various standpoints and needs of humanity there must be various different
forms and ways of living within the Church, without allowing this in any
way to # cause division, since the different members are united to each other
through love. He here regards the different Orders (and their ascetic way of
life), not as something in itself meritorious, but as a means of healing the various
sicknesses of humanity, hence also they must be different.” On the Franciscan
movement, see Thode: F . v. A. und die Anfange der Ernst in Italien 2 , 1904 , and
P. Sabatier: Vie de St FA, 1894. That the latter movement, in its religious
nature-mysticism and its individualism, contained elements which tended
to break up the ideas of the Middle Ages can here be left out of account ;
in any case, the ascetic and ecclesiastical idea ought not to be simply ignored
398 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
as Thode does. Very soberly, in fact from my own point of view too soberly,
Hauck describes the influence of these movements upon the Church in
Germany.
112 (p. 251.) I came to realize the meaning of a combination of this kind
through reading a small book by a Japanese Christian ( Utschimma ; Wie ich
Christ wurde , Stuttgart , Gundett), which shows that the Christian ethic presents no
special difficulties to a man who had grown up among feudal conditions,
where there was a natural economy, and that it was felt to be related to the
Confucian ethic, simply providing an increase of ethical energy through the
love of God and the idea of Christ. The same Japanese almost loses his faith
in Christianity, when he sees it in America and in Europe, where all the
conditions of life are the exact opposite of Christianity, and where he only
found it being really practised in small exceptional groups. Lafcadio Hearn,
in Kokoroy puts similar sentiments in the mouth of one of his characters, a
converted Japanese. — Further, the harmony between the Christian ethic and
the class system of the Middle Ages is admitted to be the agreement of magni-
tudes which had an affinity for each other, but which still were only drawn
together purely by the force of actual circumstances, and only later on realized
that they were also connected in theory, by no less a man than J. F . Stahl; Der
christliche Staat 3 p. 5 : “Finally perhaps this may be a Divine effect, which shapes
in a predetermined harmony among the Christian and especially the Germanic
peoples, the fundamental organization which no race gives to itself, and which
forms, both in its original disposition and in its maturity, an outward presenta-
tion and reflection of inward Christian relations. But that, as it is in part nearer
to, and in part farther away from, the Christian religion, partly of necessity
commanded by its spirit and partly freely penetrated by it, partly naturally
and partly as a work of moral activity — all this together, as an indissoluble
unity, it is, which, determining the State, makes it a Christian State. 59 P. nf.:
“Christianity manifests the meaning of the Divine order, which has arranged
the variety of callings in social life, and has given to each its special consecra-
tion, and it urges man to be true to the calling he has received within this
limited sphere, and Christianity manifests no less the consciousness that there
is one element in humanity which is the same for all men because all are made
in the image of God. ... In the Middle Ages first of all did the Christian
meaning of the ‘class 9 system upon a Germanic basis first become conscious and
living. The mediaeval period first made clear what a ‘class 9 (Stand) was,
That limitation to a special calling in life, and activity within a certain group,
that state of being steeped in the idea of the special significance, strength, and
the special moral obligations of this calling, whether it be knighthood and
military service, or industry, or art, or any other calling at all, that affectionate
care bestowed upon this calling, regarding it not merely as a means of earning
money or of gaining political position, but as an end in itself, that intimate
comradeship between the members of the same calling — these features of the
Middle Ages present a picture of undying beauty. 99 At the same time Stahl as
a Protestant leaves out the idea of vicarious assistance, which, however, alone
makes the merging into a unity possible, and the whole way of thinking is too
strongly coloured with the point of view of the Lutheran conception of the
“Galling 99 . — Thus the intensive Christianization, which according to Uhlhorn:
Liebestatigkeit, //, 5/., 7, was only effected by the Middle Ages, and which he
explains by referring to the emotional depth of the Germanic spirit, was still
determined also by economic social conditions, and it is quite intelligible that
a complete change in all these conditions would also entirely change the
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 399
Christianity of the Roman-German peoples in spite of their psychological
disposition.
113 (p- 253.) Here I must confine myself to a mere reference to the well-known
literature on this subject which I have consulted. Bucher: Entstehung der Volks-
whtschqft \ 1904; Gw he : Genossenschaftsrecht , 1 ; Schmoller: Giundriss dei allge-
meinen Volkswirtschaftslehe; Waitz: Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte ; Jellinek : Recht
des modernen Staates 2 , 1909, 309-916; von Inama-Sternegg: Deutsche Wirtschafts-
geschichte; Lamprecht: Agtargesch . (in the Middle Ages) in HWB. der Staats -
wissenschaften 2 ; Emmie*; Qiiellen und Geschichte des deutschen Rechtes . In the
EncykL der RechiswissenschP hrg . v. Kohler; Lamprecht: Deutsche Geschichte , I— IV;
Rambaud: Civilisation frangaise; and, above all, Simmel: Die Philosophic des Geldes 2 y
i9o8 3 in which the problem raised by the teaching of Marx, i.e. that the higher
life of the spirit and the mind is absolutely determined by economic conditions*
is treated in an extremely able way, with a great deal of valuable information,
and apart from all materialistic presuppositions. That which Kautsky: Gesch. des
Sozialismus , /, i, pp. 39-39, states is amazingly meagre, and a tiavesty of the
real facts; all that is right is his statement that the ethic of the Church is
certainly connected with a natural economy. The Church, which was originally
a group animated purely by love, has become a political community, but she
has always exercised her principle of love in a certain way through a kind of
communism founded on a natural economy, and also through giving away
surplus possessions, which the natural economy cannot use so long as it does
not produce for markets or customers, but simply for its own immediate needs. —
With reference to the money economy of the Middle Ages it should be added
that a money economy does not of itself mean capitalism ; for the conduct of
wars, for fines, and for purposes of government money was absolutely necessary,
and it was present ; as a means of settling accounts it was used as a fiction.
The fact that such money elements were present, which cannot be denied,
does not mean, however, the presence of the results of the capitalistic use of
money which have been described above.
114 (p. 254.) For the Christianization of knighthood and chivalry, which
during the period of the Hohenstaufen dynasty proceeded from the class of
men, drawn from various sections of Society, who, being without land, attached
themselves directly to the service of the Emperor and formed the chief military
forces of the time ; these men were called Ministeriales or Dienstmannen , and from
the merging of this lesser nobility with the landed aristocracy, which receives
its main characteristics from France, see Rambaud: Cw . frang. y /, 179 for
the lay civilization of chivalry and its secular spirit, see Lamprecht: DG. y III;
for the entirely secular character of the Provencal chivalry, and the transforma-
tion of its poetry when these ideas entered the class of the burghers, in which
love {die Mime) again became ethical and religious, and was then placed
absolutely at the disposal of religious allegory and penetrated into Franciscan
mysticism (it is from this view-point that we must understand Dante’s Beatrice),
see Vossler: Dante , /, 486-301 , and Die Philosophischen Grundlagen zum sussen
neuen StiL y 1904 ; this is at the same time a characteristic sign of the difference
between feudalism and town-life. Knightly civilization, however, is always
that point in mediaeval Christianity where, in reality, the compromise with
an alien spiritual and ethical power which is contrary to the principles of
Christianity is actually and obviously present. Of course, it is true that there
have always been such compromises, and no religious ethic can avoid this
difficulty. But it is important to note that these compromises do not lie in the
recognition of the State, the Family, and economic life as such, as von Eicken
4oa THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
suggests, but in the recognition of the code of honour set up by chivaliy, and
in the spiritualization of the courtly forms of love-making.
115 (p* 258.) Cf. R. W. and A. J. Carlyle: History of Mediaeval Theory , /, Part IV 3
The Political Theory of the Ninth Century ; Reuter , in his Gesch. d. Aufklarung im
Mittelalter , draws attention to the elements which reveal the influence of the
idea of Natural Law in a most able and understanding way, but unfortunately
he treats them all from the wholly erroneous point of view of the Aufklarung
(Enlightenment). Here, however, the only Aufklarung , that is, the discarding of
the historical and miraculous element, to which the expression can really apply,
was the movement of thought represented by the radical Averroistic sects.
Abelard is entirely misinterpreted by Reuter . Reuter , like many theologians,
does not understand that without having recourse to general necessities of
thought Christianity could not have maintained its intellectual existence, and
that without accepting the social philosophy of the Stoics in particular it
would have been simply helpless when confronted with the problems of social
life. No social doctrines can be evolved simply from the New Testament,
and that which meets in Stoicism and Christianity is not a number of alien
elements, but elements which are akin to each other and have gro\\ n up out
of the same situation. These ideas have not been borrowed from an entirely
foreign “ancient” way of thinking, as is often supposed by non-theological
thinkers, with a faculty for making sweeping generalizations which is not
admissible. Otherwise Reuter's book is extremely instructive, as a witness to the
mass of material from antiquity which was incorporated in the life and thought
of the Middle Ages.
116 (p* 2 59-) Tor the leading part played by the Law of Nature in Abelard
and in the Decretum Gratiani , see Luthhardt: Gesch. d. chr. Ethik , I, 270 and 243.
When L. here adds, “this was the consequence of that setting aside by the Early
Church of the importance of faith for ethics, and of the placing of faith and
works side by side”, as a Lutheran he forgets that Luther and Early Protes-
tantism held the same views, for the same reasons as the Early Church and
the Mediaeval Church, and very strongly. — On St. Thomas Aquinas , cf. the
so-called Summa contra gentiles , and the great Summa theologica with its three parts,
which in the pars secunda deals with ethics ; see also the work of Werner: Der h.
Thomas von Aquino , If i8yg } which gives copious extracts from the saint’s woiks.
Rieter: Die Moral . des h. Thomas I have, unfortunately, been unable to use.
Indispensable for the understanding of Thomism is Renan's well-known book
Aver roes et V Averroisme, 1852. In addition see the various histories of dogma and
of Christian ethics which have already been named, as well as Froschhammcr:
Th. v. A . and Jourdain: La philosophic de St. Thomas , and Janet: Histoire de la
philosophie morale. So far as the Summa is concerned, the parts with which we
are here concerned are especially the treatises De fine hominis , De virtutibus, De
legibus, De justitia et jure ; further, the doctrines of the Primitive State, of sin,
and of the opposition between the state of sin and the state of grace, which are
scattered throughout the whole work. At this point also we must already
mention works which deal with the social philosophy of St. Thomas : J. Bau-
mann: Die Staatslehre des h. Th., 1873, a collection of translations and extracts
from the writings of St. Thomas, which, however, fail to give due weight to
the really vital connection with the fundamental theological doctrines, and
therefore very incomplete; this writer also lays undue stress upon the com-
mentary on Aristotle’s Politics , which, according to Thornes , does not represent
the views of St. Thomas at all, but is simply an account of the views of Aristotle
himself, which St. Thomas, departing from the usual habits of mediaeval
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 40!
commentators, distinguishes fiom his own opinion, and also Baumann does not
realize that the second pait of this commentary was not written by St, Thomas
himself, which means that the sections between p. 107 and p . 166 do not count
(sec Thornes , 25-36) ; see, further, Fengueray: Essai sm les doctrines pohtiques de
St. Th. } i857> very informative and able, only likewise overestimating the
commentary on Aristotle’s Politics ; this writer does not give the theological
doctrines their full significance (especially the doctrine of the Primitive
State) ; the book is also full of the erroneous idea that there is in existence a
great Christian system of politics of egahte and fratemiti which corresponds to
the great principles of 1 789, traces of -which he claims to be able to discover
in St, Thomas, and in the writings of the ancient Fathers of the Church;
the whole outlook of Christian positivism and patriarchalism in social matters
which is connected with this conception of God and the doctrine of the Fall
of man is here underestimated; finally, see N. Thornes : Commentatio liter aria et
critica de S. Thomae: Operibus ad ecclesiasticum, politicum , socialem staium reirepublicae
Christianae pertinentibus, deque ejus doctnnae fundamentis atque piaeceptis — a Berlin
Dissertation of 1874, where the whole system of ideas and the situation of the
criticism of the sources, as well as the most important basic passages, are here
briefly and well described. In detail there is still room for several monographs.
117 (p. 260.) See the Summa } I a, 2 ae } qu.go : “Principium exterius [alongside
of the inner one of virtue] movens nos ad bonum est Deus qui et nos instruit
per Legem (et juvat per gratiam).” This then leads to the fundamental
questions: “utrum lex sit aliquid rationis” and “de fine legis”. Under the first
head the whole metaphysical-rational doctrine of law is developed ; qu. gi a. 1 :
“Legem autem a Deo exire praesupponit (ut patet) legem ipsam in Deo esse.”
The universal Law of Nature has reference to the end for which the world
was created; qu. go a. 2: “oportet, quod lex maxime respiciat ordinem, qui
est in beatitudine.” This universal law penetrates the life of all creatures, and
reaches its summit in man in the conscious law of liberty ; qu. gi a. 3 : “Etiam
animalia irrationalia participant rationem aeternam suo modo, sicut et
rationalis creatura ; sed quia rationalis creatura participat earn intellectualiter
et rationaliter, ideo participatio legis aeternae in creatura rationali proprie
lex vocatur ... in creatura autem irrationali non participalur rationaliter
unde non potest dici lex nisi per similitudinem. . . . Inter cetera rationalis
creatura excellentiori quodam modo divinae providentiae subjacet, in quantum
et ipsa fit providentiae particeps sibi ipsi et aliis providens. Unde et in ipsa
participatur ratio acterna, per quam habet naturalem inclinationem ad debitum
actum ct finem. Et talis participatio legis aeternae in rationali creatura Lex
Naturalis dicitur. Unde patet quod lex naturalis nihil aliud est, quam partici-
patio legis aeternae in rationali creatura.” From this share in the divine
law of reason human law proceeds, just as human thought proceeds from the
fundamental logical idea which flows forth from God; qu. gi a. 3 : “ita etiam
ex praeceptis legis naturalis quasi ex quibusdam principiis communibus et
indemonstrabilibus est quod ratio humana procedat ad aliqua magis parti-
culariter disponenda. Et istae particulares dispositiones adinventae secundum
rationem humanam dicuntur leges humanae.” Then note especially the great
passage in qu. 33-37 , in which the whole Law of Nature is derived from the
lex aeterna and is determined by its content. As his authorities for these doctrines
St. Thomas gives, in addition to Cicero and Aristotle, the other authors of
the Early Church with whom we are already familiar, naturally especially
Isidore and Augustine, whose Ciceronian definition of the State as aliquis
rationalis coetus he also makes his starting-point. Otherwise he proceeds upon
402 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the assumption that the Bible contains the same doctrine in detail and explicitly.
Here especially the famous passages from St. Paul (Romans iL 15) always
recur ; but all the Old Testament passages which deal with the eternal Divine
Law and the political examples from the Old Testament play an important
part. The rationalism of Natural Law seems to be a thoroughly Scxiptural
doctrine; this naturally leads to an instinctive haimonizing of the Law of
Nature and of Aristotle with the social and political conditions of the O.T.
118 (p. 261.) While the doctrine of the Primitive State is restated under the
influence of the Augustinian doctrine of grace, and the ancient doctrine of
the perfect beginning of humanity or the Golden Age now becomes expanded
in Christian dogma into the doctrine of a double perfection, of a perfection of
reason and of the bonam naturae within its connatural limits (imago Dei), as
well as of a perfection of the supernaturally imparted impaitation of grace
which transcends nature, or the substantial union with God (similitudo Dei or
donum superadditum) , the real nature of the Fall is no longer regaided as the
loss of the “absolute Law of Nature”, but as the loss of the mystical perfection
imparted by grace due to the guilt of man. This loss, which is the basis of the
doctrine of Original Sin, then first leads indirectly to the destruction of the
naturalis perfectio or of the bonam naturae , and then only to the new conditions of
fallen humanity, for the remaining principia piactica legis naturae. They come
under the condition of external conditions of life which have become more
difficult, in which even the natural reason and judgment have become dimmed
through Original Sin, in which reason and the passions have become divided,
even in the sphere of the Law of Nature, which cannot be avoided in the
nature of a humanity which the consciousness of guilt induced by Original Sin
has altered, and which through the donum superadditum is no longer guaranteed
and regulated in a supernatural way, but is left at the mercy of the natural
perils of change and the passions of men (Werner, II, 555/.). Hence far more
emphasis is now laid upon the loss of the miracle of grace and the clouding
of reason which is indirectly derived from this, whereas in the Early Church
the predominating idea was the direct opposition which existed between the
absolute Natural Law [which was held to be the same as the Christian ethic]
and the sinful obscuring of the Law and the impotence of man to fulfil it.
Hence in St. Thomas we find also that the doctrine of the relative Natural
Law as the remedium et poena peccati is not developed in theory as much as in
the Early Church. Also it is undeniable that the influence of Aristotle’s evolu-
tionary view of history, which, unlike the Stoic thcoiy, has no conception of
an absolute original perfection, but which teaches that Reason gradually
makes its way through the mists raised by the senses and the passions, and in
so doing produces the State, the Family, and Society, certainly tends to make
it appear as though the lex naturalis humana were a natural product of evolution,
not a mere modification of the perfect absolute Law of Nature. The old
fundamental Stoic-Christian point of view still constantly reappeais, however,
as a natural presupposition, as, indeed, is only natural, seeing that the idea of
libertas and communis possessio in the Primitive State was retained, and seeing
that the whole idea of a perfect Primitive State is also quite natural from
the point of view of Reason and a reasonable social order. The problem is
discussed in principle under the title <e Uirum lex naimae matari possit ?** I a, 2 ae,
qu . g4, a. 5: “Isidorus dicit in lib. 5. Etymologiarum, quod communis omnium
possessio et una libertas est de jure naturali. Sed haec videmus esse mutata per
leges humanas. Ergo videtur, quod lex naturalis sit mutabilis. Sed contra est,
quod dicitur in Decretis dest. 5 ‘naturale jus ab exordio rationalis creaturae
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 403
coepit, nec variatur tempore sed immutabile permanet 9 . Respondeo : dicendum,
quod lex naturalis potest intelligi mutari duplicitur. Uno modo per hoc, quod
aliquid ei addatur. 99 Additions both to the Old Testament moral law and to
human legislation are thus explained. “Alio modo potest intelligi mutatio
legis naturalis per modum subtraction^, ut scilicet aliquid desinat esse de
lege naturali, quod prius fuit secundum legem naturalem. Et sic quantum
ad prima principia legis naturae, . . . quae diximus esse quasi quasdam con-
clusiones propinquas piimis principiis, sic lex naturalis non mutatur, quin
ut in pluribus sit rectum, quod lex naturalis habet. Potest tamen mutari in
aliquo particulari et in paucioribus propter aliquas speciales causas impe-
dientes observantiam talium praeceptorum." One of the first hindrances
was the sinful condition of selfishness and the lust of power which necessi-
tated new forms of law and new revelations of the Law of Nature. Thus
capital punishment is explained as due to the new conditions of sin intro-
duced by the Fall, after God had first brought death into the world as a
punishment for sin. Above all, however: “Dicendum, quod aliquid dicitur
esse de jure naturali dupliciter. Uno modo, quia ad hoc natura inclinat,
sicut non esse injuriam alteri faciendam. Alio modo quia natura non
inducit contrarium, sicut possemus dicere, quod hominem esse nudum
est de jure naturali, quia natura non dedit ei vestitum, sed ars adin-
venit. Et hoc modo communis omnium possessio et una libertas dicitur esse
de jure naturali, quia scilicet distinctio possessionum et servitus non sunt
inductae a natura sed per hominum rationem ad utilitatem humanae vitae,
et sic etiam in hoc lex naturae non est mutata nisi per additionem." This
utilitas is fitted to the conditions of the Fallen State, and the twofold point of
view of the lex naturae ... is that of absolute and relative Natural Law ; cf.
Meyer: Die christlich-ethischen Moralprinzipien und die Arbeiterfrage 4 , igo 4, p. 36.
It is here quite plain that early Stoic-Christian ideas are mingled with the
Aristotelian theory of evolution, and that incidentally the latter holds the
field. Further, for the original conditions in the Primitive State, and on the
change in the idea of the absolute Law of Nature through the new moral and
physical conditions of existence, see Werner: D. h, Th ., II, 503, 457, 336 /., 342/.
460 , and also 1 a, 2 ae, qu. 98: “Dicendum, quod in statu isto (the Fallen State)
multiplicatis dominis necesse est fieri divisionem possessionum, quia com-
munitas possessionis est occasio discordiae, ut philosophus dicit in II Polit.
Sed in statu innocentiae fuissent voluntates hominum sic ordinatae, quod
absque omni periculo discordiae communiter usi fuissent, secundum quod
uniciuque eorum competeret, rebus quae eorum dominio subdebantur ; cum
hie etiam nunc apud multos bonos viros observetur." The Natural Law of
the libido as of a change brought about (as a punishment) of the absolute Natural
Law free from libido into a relative Natural Law, cf. ia , 2 ae, qu.gr, a . 61 “Sed
inquantum per divinam justitiam homo destituitur originali justitia et vigore
rationis, ipse impetus sensualitis,quieum ducit, habet rationem legis, inquantum
est poenalis et ex lege divina consequens hominem destitutum propria digni-
tate." — For Dante and these questions, see Vossler , I, 4171 also ibid., p. 388,
for Dante’s view of the State in his Monarchia ; Gerson’s theory, in Thornes ,
p. 106, is exactly similar : (i) Jus cujuslibet creaturae : leges insitae omnibus
rebus, (ii) Jus creaturae naturalis : lex proprie divina et lex proprie naturalis.
(iii) Leges hominum viatorum : lex canonica et lex civilis (the law of the
Church and the relative Law of Nature).
119 (p. 262.) It cannot by any means be taken for granted that the Decalogue
became the formula of the Christian moral law as it is to-day in our catechisms.
404 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
In the Early Church there was no fixed standard; there were only lists of
virtues and offences, formal catalogues of the gifts of the Spirit, and beyond
this the Augustinian formula of the double command of love, of the love of
God in the narrower sense, and of the love of the brethren in God, according
to the Doctrina chmtiana. The Decalogue only became popular through the use
of the scholastic ethic, the practice of the popular preachers and of preparation
for confession. Cf. von Zezschwitz's AitJCatechetik in PRE 2 . Through this, however,
the equation of the Natural Law and the Decalogue gained both theoretically
and practically a far higher significance ; then also the material of the Decalogue
could be interpreted and expanded out of the Natural Law. The Decalogue
only became part of the Catechism at the Reformation, which indeed first
created the Catechism. Previously there had been confession books for the
unlearned, speculum ecclesiae , and similar works, in which the Decalogue, the
doctrine of the sacraments, the oratio dominica , and the symbolum were placed
together. — The lex divina of the Decalogue and of the Old Testament refer to
the ends of reason within the life of this present world, and it is distinguished
from the supernatural end of grace, and.its nova lex which appeals purely to the
general spirit and disposition of the believer, and not to isolated acts (I a , 2 ae 9
qu. p/, art . 5). Yet both are only distinguished from each other as lex pe fee ta
and lex imperfecta , as laws which correspond to the stage which humanity has
reached, in which the one points the way to the other, and indeed contains it
already in germ. On the equation of the Decalogue and the Nairn al Law,
see qu . g8 3 with the information that this law should only accidentally biing
death and the knowledge of sin ; on the contrary, that essentially it should
educate and prepare the Church for the reception of giace. Here the Pauline-
Augustinian Dualism of the Law and the Gospel, which was adopted by the
Reformers later on, most clearly is broken through in favour of an ascending
development including the ethic of this present world. Qu. g8 s a. 5: “Dicenduxn
quod lex vetus manifestabat praecepta legis naturae et super-addebat quaedam
propria praecepta 5 * (that is, the Jewish laws of ceremonial, etc.). Qu. g8 y a . 6 :
“Lex vetus disponebat ad salutem quae erat futura per Christum . . . statim
post peccatum primi hominis non competebat legem veterem dari ; turn quia
nondum homo recognoscebat se ea indigere de sua ratione confisus, turn quia
adhuc dictamen legis naturae nondum erat obtenebratum per consuetudinem
peccati. Oportebat hujusmodi auxilium quodani ordine dari, ut per imperfecta
ad perfectionem manducerentur. Et ideo inter legem naturae et legem gratiae
oportuit legem veterem dari.” On the systematic character of the Decalogue
as the epitome of the Law of Nature, qu. 100. The Decalogue virtually includes
the whole of the Law of Nature (a. 3 ) : “Utraque horum praeceptorum con-
tinentur in praeceptis decalogi. Nam ilia, quae sunt prima et communia
continenlur in eis, sicut principia in conclusionibus proximis, ilia vero, quae per
sapientes cognoscuntur, continentur in eis e converso sicut conclusiones in
principiis.” On the other hand, however, the Decalogue is also identical with
the Christian Law, and its two halves divide themselves into the Love of God
and the love of the brethren; see the treatise Expositio in duo praecepta ca? itatis
et in decern legis praecepta. We must not overlook the fact that this comparison
had a good deal of effect; by constantly introducing the ideas of the Old
Testament it distinctly affected the idea of the Law of Nature itself (cf. also
the treatment of this question in the de regimine principis). The acceptance of
the Aristotelian doctrine is also affected by it, in this way, that in it the con-
servative, anti-capitalistic features which are directed against indulgence and
loss of self-control are emphasized. It is nowhere a pure Aristotelianism ; it is
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 405
always mingled with the ideas of the Bible. In detail, however, there is need
of further research into this whole question of the reaction of these Biblical-
Christian elements upon the conceptions and interpretation of the Aristotelian
ethic ; cf, Feugueray , p. 204; Thornes , pp. roiff.
120 (p. 265.) Law new and old, see Werner, II, 571; the formulation of the
new mystical moral law ( Weiner , II, 583) ; the detailed interpretation [Summa,
1 a., 2 ae ., qu . 1 06-108) ; the analysis of the New Testament Law in connection
with Augustine, and how the latter appeals to the Law of Nature rather than
to the Decalogue, qu. 108, art . s. See also the tractate De fine , 1 a, 2 ae, qu. 1—3, the
key to the whole ethic, which, with Augustine, works from the conception of
the £e end ,s and incorporates into the Neo-Platonic, mystical Christian end of
blessedness and the Vision of God, the Aristotelian end of social welfare,
order and the full development of the intellectual and physical energies and
capacities, subordinating them as an intermediate end, the attainment of
which disposes and prepares the soul for the finis ultimas. See also Heinrich:
Lchrbuch der hath. Dogmatik, pp. 26gff., see also 1 a, 2 ae, qu. iog a ., 3: “Natura
diligit Deum super omnia, prout est piincipium et finis naturalis boni.
Caritas autem [that is, the sacramentally effected viituc of the nova lex, which
contains within itself all the other mystical-supernatural virtues] secundum
quod est objectum beatitudinis et secundum quod homo habet quandum
societatem spiritualem cum Deo. Addit etiam caritas super naturalem dilec-
tionem. Dei promptitudinem quandam et delectationem, sicut habitus
quilibet virtutis addit super actum bonum, qui fit ex sola naturali ratione
hominis.” Hence, then, the morality of reason according to the Law of Nature
has a natural reward, and the mystical morality of grace has a supernatural
reward ; there is a natural blessedness of the Natural Law and a supernatural
of the law of Grace ; Werner, II, p. gig : “Vita aeterna est quoddam bonum
excedens proportionem naturae creatae, quia etiam excedit cognitionem et
desiderium ejus. . . . Et inde est quod nulla creatura creata est sufficiens
principium actus meritorii vitae aeternae [thus quite apart from sin, even
from the standpoint of the absolute Law of Nature], nisi superaddatur aliquod
supernaturale donum quod gratia dicitur [and this is true as well in the
Primitive State as in the Fallen State]. For the ascent from the one to the other,
see Thornes, p. 58: “Thomas hujus vitae bonae, nec solum ilia, quae in erudi-
tione animae sed ilia quoque, quae in corporis bona condicione ceterisque
rebus exterioribus ponuntur, multum ad beatitudinem ‘imperfectam, quae in
hac vita haberi possit 5 valere declaravit, sive ut ‘praeambula vel praeparatoria 5 ,
sive ut ‘perficientia’ sive ut ‘adjuvantia extrinsecus 5 sive ut ‘concomitantiaL
Earn ob causam multam artem dialecticam magnumque studium in id
consumpsit, ut rectum et verum hujus vitae bonorum facer et ordinem gradusque
recte disponeret.’ 5 Likewise Feugueray, pp. 31, 37, 38.— For the Augustinian
interpretation of the ethic of the New Testament and its relation to this itself,
see the observation in the first part, p. 328; I agree with the interpretation,
that is, if the whole intellectualistic mystical and supernatural part is left out.
In the ethic of the Gospel, too, the religious end is the centre which determines
and organizes everything, only in it union with God takes the form of the
union of the will of man with the Will of God in ethical obedience, and love
of the brethren is the revelation and effect of the attitude of God towards man,
especially in its ethical achievement, which, on the other hand, from the
ethical achievement also leads to God, and to the true Will of God, To this
extent I still hold to this point of view over against Harnack’s objections
(JPreuss. Jahrbh., March 1307). On this point Protestantism is less clear than the
4 o6 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Augustinian ethic, since in part it places the Christian moral law in the
Decalogue, and in part renounces formulas altogether and speaks only of the
effect of faith. Precisely on that account also for Catholicism the pioblcm of
Christian ethics is this : how to combine the ethic which is derived directly
from religion with one in which it is not possible to trace its origin in religion.
Protestantism also was confronted with this problem and we shall see how
many difficulties it caused. The scholastic- Augustinian statement of the problem
itself is, however, in any case relevant, and harmonizes with the fundamental
tendency of the Ghiistian faith. On this point, see F. J. Schmidt; Gottesliebe
und Nachstenhebe (. Pteuss . Jahbb 1908, Apnl No .), who expresses his own view
on the difference of opinion between Harnack and myself and supports my
contention. He does this, however, in a purely speculative way by deduction
from the Christian idea. I, for my part, have taken up this position purely
empirically from the Gospel, and only later when I was studying this question
did I see how closely this interpretation is connected with the Augustinian-
scholastic one, only apart from the mystical mtellectualistic and sacramental
features. Schmidt does not notice at all how his formulas coincide almost word
for word with those of the Victorines, of St. Augustne and of St. Thomas.
These analyses are easily underestimated in Protestant literature, and easily
ignored entirely by non-theologicals ; they contain, however, in reality much
right feeling and acute insight.
121 (p. 271.) For the graduated process of ascent, see We) net, II, 507, 310 ff. ;
cf. also Baumann, 82; Feugueray,pp. 155/., 193; Thornes , 72. See also the preceding
notes. — On the lack of any actual directly Christian policy and social reform,
and the placing of all positive social construction, when this was required at
all, on the plane of the principles of the Natural Law, and therefore on the
sub-Christian level, Feugueray , pp, 212 ff., speaks very truly. “The ideal of
Christian Society as an end, and the successive realization of this ideal by
suitable social action — this idea is in the minds of us all to-day. But one would
search in vain for the least hint of such an idea in St. Thomas. It is, indeed,
his great error that he cannot conceive of Christian politics at all. He does
not see that Christianity has inaugurated a new civilization ; he does not even
know that the Christian principles of right and of justice are very different
from the principles of antiquity, whether among the Gentiles or the Jews.
It is true that he knew that the new law was far better than the old ; he often
compares the two laws, and he sees that the new law is higher, since its aim
is not material and tangible, but noble and supernatural, since also it does not
merely control the external actions of men, but the movements of their hearts
(‘cohibet manum et animam’), since it requires to be obeyed, not out of fear,
but from love. This is the reason for the superiority of the new law, but so
far as moral precepts are concerned, and the rule for external actions and the
relations of men with each other, the new law has introduced nothing new at
all ; it has nothing to add to the ancient law. St. Thomas says plainly : ‘Lex
nova super veterem adder e non debuit circa exteriora agenda’ {2 -a, 2 ae ,
q. 10S, a . 2) ,* and this ancient law, the Jewish law, he observes, was itself, so
far as its ethic was concerned, simply the Law of Nature, the primitive law,
so that in reality the moral law of humanity, according to St. Thomas, has not
changed, and the Christian ethic does not differ from that of the ancient
world ; it does not differ, at least, save in the order of Grace in all that has to
do with the salvation of souls ; but in the order of Nature, for the precepts of
justice, for ordering relations between men and nations, and, in consequence,
for the principles of politics, Christianity and antiquity have one and the same
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 407
conscience . . . Christianity gives to man the means for eternal salvation but
its influence does not extend to the affairs of this life, and does not modify the
temporal condition of men. 55 This opinion is true of a good deal in Thomism;
but in it there is overlooked the inner difficulty of a Christian moulding of
Society; and also the writer overlooks the amount of inner Christianization
and harmonizing of the Natural Law with Christian thought which has taken
place; even though this may have taken place very indirectly, still it must
be taken into account. One has only to compare the Natural Law of the
Enlightenment and the ancient doctrine of the State in order to see the
difference. The Law of Nature is not a conception which only bears one
meaning ; it is also dependent upon the general way of thinking at any given
period. The scholastic conception of Natural Law is, in fact, something which
bears a strong impress of Christian ideas.
I21a (p. 272.) Cf. my article: Kathohzismus und Reformismus in the Inter*
nationalen Wochenschnft , /907. For the relation between legalism and heteronomy
to inward freedom and autonomy in this system, see Gottschick: Ethik , 1907,
pp. 63 Jf. From its teleological-mystical character there follows ultimately
objectively freedom, but pedagogical considerations, the complicated nature
of the Ethos and the demand for uniformity, often lead the individual to
submit to authority and heteronomy. In any case the problem is far more
complicated than Protestant controversialists usually admit. Catholicism
naturally was also affected by other influences, to which its legalistic spirit
and its stress on the acquisition of merit were also due.
121b (p. 274.) This does not mean that the modern conception of evolution
would find no difficulties and problems in this sphere of thought. Certainly this
conception is to-day, and most particularly to-day, one which contains the
greatest difficulties, cf. Bergson: U evolution creatrice. But this subject cannot here
be pursued any farther. All that can be said is, that in any case, in the form
of Thomism, these reconciliations and transitions do not spring out of an
inner necessity of thought, but that they are posited in a purely anthro-
pomorphic and arbitrary manner.
122 (p. 274.) On the idea of evolution in St. Thomas, see Wernet , II, 469/.,
51#/., 555? 547 ? and the whole section on the various stages and their ends,
II, 293-317; Feugueray: pp. 131, igof.. 193; Summa , 1 a, 2 ae, qu. 97 a. i: “Humanae
rationi naturale esse videtur ut gradatim ab imperfecto ad perfectum veniat.”
This applies also to the relation of nature to grace itself, whereby grace appears
now as the perfection of nature, and now as a purely supernatural super-
structure, Qu. 106, art. 3: “Non enim aliquid ad perfectum adducitur statim
a principio, sed quodam temporalis successionis ordine, sicut aliquis primum
fit puer et postmodum vir”; hence the process of revelation from the Lex
naturae to the Lex vetus , and thence to the Lex nova. — The ultimately purely
architectonic character of this idea of development is well brought out by
Gass: Gesch. d. christl . Ethik , I, 432, 324/.
123 (■ p, 276.) The connection between the scholastic-architectonic logic and
the classified system which constituted the social reality is an idea similar to
that expressed by Simmel , when he speaks of the connection between modern
rationalism and relativism and a money economy and its social effects. This
is an application of the Marxist idea of the dependence of the spiritual super-
structure upon the social-economic substructure, which, if accepted with due
precautions, seems to me to be a justifiable and illuminating idea. Naturally
in so doing logic does not become a mere reflection and translation of economic-
social conditions into supposed laws of thought, which then to the thinker
408 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
become transformed into apparently logical necessities* All thought, however,
always possesses certain ideas which it takes for granted, which it regards as
axiomatic. For real thought itself, however, these ideas are no axioms at all ;
when they are critically examined it is possible to break them up or to relegate
them to a very secondary position without there being any need for the social
substructure to be altered in the least. This way of thinking is, however, a
consolation when we are confronted by unexamined ideas which seem perfectly
natural, especially when they dominate practical life. The modern tendency
to find mental satisfaction in measuring everything by a fixed rational
standard, and the way it takes for granted that everything can be related to
everything else, certainly receives from the apparently objective value of
money, and the universal possibility of exchange which this involves, a strong
psychological impulse to become a fixed habit of thought, whereas the purely
logical process itself, when it only follows its own course, is not subject to these
influences, and it then turns these accepted ideas into mere probabilities.
The scholastic tendency to be satisfied with an external architectonic unity and
to think that the needs of the value of the individual have been met when it
has been assigned a quantitatively graduated share in the meaning of the
whole, seems to me to be, in a similar way, under the psychological influence
of the class and corporate social life in the State, Society, and the Church.
Precisely on that account, therefore, the thought of the Middle Ages knew
nothing of modern individualism which desires to give to each individual his
direct share in the meaning of the whole. Of course this does not mean that
in other directions the scholastic argument does not follow the logical-
dialectical impulse pure and simple. Psychological influences of this kind also
do not proceed solely from the social-economic sphere, as is shown by the
influence of eschatology within scholasticism, in which, however, the social
substructure made its appearance in the vicarious offerings, penitences, and
wergilds of those days. I believe, however, that I have here shown that these
psychological influences from the social sphere are very considerable, and
that the Christian social doctrines of Catholicism are here determined by a
psychological element of fact, not by the dialectic of Christian thought,
whose individualism is here not satisfied, and also actually breaks away from it,
as will be shown in the section on Protestantism.
123b (p. 278.) For this period, to which at present very little research has been
given, and which especially on the side of its ethic and its social philosophy is
still very obscure, see the beginnings of an undei standing of the subject in
Her melinck: Die theologische Fakaltdt in Tubingen vor der Reformation, 1477—1534-,
1906, and also my review GGA, 1909. For the ethic and social philosophy of
Cusanus which was affected by Humanism, see, in addition to Gierke , III \
the presentation of the subject by Eucken; Beitrdge zur Einfuhrung in die Geschichte
der Philosophies , 1906; for the ethic of Sir Thomas More, which accepted entirely
the universal Theism of the Renaissance, see the instructive study by
if. Dietzel: Beitrdge zur Geschichte des Sozial. u. Kommunismus, Vierteljahrschriftfiir
Staats- und Volkswirtschaft, K For the Thomism of the Counter-Reformation,
the acceptance of the civilization of the Renaissance which this made possible,
and the high civilization achieved by Catholicism in consequence, which at
first far exceeded that of the Protestant countries, see Gothein; Staat und Gesell -
schaft des Zeitalters der Gegenreformation ( Kultur des Gegenwart , //, V, i.).
123c (p. 280.) For the Catholicism of the Enlightenment, see Ludwig:
Weihbischof zjirkel von Witrzburg in seiner Stellung zur theolog . Aufklarung und zur
kirchl. Restaur ation y 1904/6. It is here very evident that the Kantianism which
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 409
has penetrated the Catholic system in an amazing way shrinks primarily from
the social ideal in which nature and grace are united in the universal supremacy
of the Church. For modern conditions, cf. the extremely interesting book of
Abbe Houtin: Uameiicanisme. Quelqaes Lettres ( igo8), by Loisy, also shows repeat-
edly that the ideas of Thomism and of the Guna cannot be combined with the
modern way of thinking on social questions, and with its metaphysical-ethical
premisses. The attempts which have been made to allow modern Catholicism
to accept modem social ideas alone without allowing them to influence dogma,
ethics, or the philosophy of the Church, are illusions, and with good reason
such merely social Modernists always finally end by becoming critical of
dogma and philosophy also. It has not yet been proved to what extent a new
system of Catholicism could be erected upon this basis. On this question see
both the works of M. Legendre and J. Chevalier: Le catholicisme et la societe, Paris,
1907 ( Collection des doctrines politiques pubhee sons la direction de Mater , II), and
G. Tyrrel : Mediaevalism , London , igoQ. The former book is unimportant, the
latter, however, is most interesting ; it presents the reader with the ideal of an
organic-evolutionary Catholicism, which is nothing less than the common
spirit of Christianity working freely and inwardly in individuals, which, as
religion, is distinguished from theology, and only as religion, not as theology,
is Divine ; hence in the fixed statements of the Church on dogma and ethics
this religion only sees provisional dogmas of interpretation and therefore the
latter cannot claim to have any right to be imposed on anyone by force;
so far as the former is concerned they fall away completely ; with this, then, it
would be easy to adapt the claims of the Church to modern social life, as a
free Church in a free State. There can be no doubt about the religious purity-
and the modern character of the whole conception, but in my opinion this
would no longer be Catholicism at all, and in practice it would be quite
impossible, without breaking up the unity of dogma, and with that the back-
bone of Catholicism. See also Karl Holl: Der Modernismus , 1908 , whose judgment
(p. 41 f.) seems to me to be absolutely to the point.
124 (p. 281.) The sources for the following section are, in addition to his
commentaries on the Bible and on Aristotle, the great Summa , which in the
secunda secundae is especially concerned with ethics, the small Summa , whose
third book deals with ethics, and the work entitled De regimine principum , of
which, however, only the first book and part of the second can be regarded
as having been written by St. Thomas himself. Also noteworthy are the works
of Jourdain , /, Janet /, as well as the works which have already been men-
tioned by Baumann , Feugueray , Thornes , to whom should be added Max Mawen-
brecher : Thomas 5 Stellung zu dem Wirtschaftsleben seiner £eit, 1898 (unfortunately,
only the first volume has been published). Alongside of the Thomist writings
themselves the works of the Neo-Thomists should always be studied as well,
because they have made a systematic collection of the scattered material, and
they bring out very fully its inner meaning in contrast to the very different
modern spirit, and also because in their fight against the modem doctrine of
Society they make very plain the historical importance of Thomism. Here we
would make special mention of the very instructive work (already named)
by Theod . Meyer , S. J . : Die christlich-ethischen Sozialprinzipien und die Arbeiterfrage ,
1904, the first work appearing in the series Die soziale Frage beleuchtet durch die
Stimmen aus Maria Laach; in the other works in this series, which deal with all
kinds of modern social and political questions, it is possible to gain a good
impression of the “spirit” which animates the Catholic Christian sociological
thought of the present day; further see Cathrem : Moralphilosophie . Fine wissen -
4 io THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
schaftliche Darstellung der sittlkhea , e'mchUesslich der rechtlichen Chdmmg z , i8gg ,
as well as Ratzinger: Die Volkswhtschaft in then ethischen Grundlagen, 1881; also
von Nostitz-Rteneck: Das Problem der Ktdiur, 1885, Most of the works which deal
with the Thomist doctrine of society and of politics have one defect, namely,
that they do not take into account the ideal type of sociological thought which
has been formulated in these woiks, or the fundamental theory of the sociology
of Thomism, but they place the various doctrines alongside of one another,
without attempting to reconcile them with each other. These theories, however,
are in part those which are most dependent upon the history of the time and
the least influential, in part, too, in their historically effective content they
cannot thus be understood, but if that spirit is not felt they seem to be an
eclectic blend of ideas from the Bible, the Fathers, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca,
the Canon Law and the conditions of the day, which Janet complains is all
in great confusion. In reality, however, all this material forms part of a very
able and consistent intellectual whole. Von Eicken should also be mentioned
here, who certainly tries to present the whole mediaeval doctrine of civiliza-
tion and of Society as one theory. But his treatment of the subject becomes an
absolute travesty of the reality, since, in the most vigorous and doctiinaire way,
he makes everything depend upon the conception of the world-domination of
asceticism, and claims that in principle the Church did away with the Family,
the State and Society altogether, and replaced all these group-forms by her
own life. The only true ideal of the Church is supposed to be the ascetic Divine
State as the sole form of social life, with the removal of the sex-life, of the
State and sovereignty, of property and inequality. Although, in spite of this,
the Church also uses the relative Christian Law of Nature, this is said to be
due to the fact that the nature of the world with its opposing ideas has forced
this upon the Church; and when the further objection is raised that the
leading theologians derived this Natural Law from Christian thought, and
gave it the most explicit recognition, the writer argues that this was due to
a most unhappy lack of clearness of thought, which prevented the Church
from ever coming to a clear understanding of the distinctive principles upon
which she was based. All these arguments, however, are based upon false
assumptions. On principle he does not attempt to explain the arguments of
the theologians themselves, or of St. Thomas in particular, because he is
convinced that he knows what these theologians do not know, and which they
absolutely oppose — namely, that the world-supremacy of asceticism is the only
fundamental Catholic idea, and that behind evciy effort to 1 elate secular
institutions with a religious value for life, there lies in wait the logical conse-
quence of the ascetic domina tion of the world which denies the world, even
when the religious expressions in question have themselves no suspicion of this.
Instead of basing his study on the works of the great theologians, he prefers to
amass a large number of individual characteristics which he pieces together
like a mosaic, which are collected especially from monastic literature — that is,
from the works of those who entirely renounce the world. This, however,
produces a false impression of the whole subject, which, further, would make it
quite impossible to understand the Catholicism of the present day and Its
social philosophy. — The section in Gierke: Genossenschaftsrecht , ///, §01-64^
which is entitled Die publizistischen Lehren des Mitielalters, refers to the whole
mediaeval doctrine of Society, as well as to that of St. Thomas in particular;
it is important to remember always that this general background forms an
important complement to the thought of Thomism. There is also material to
be found in Gierke: AUhusius und die Entwickelung der naturmhtlichen Staats-
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 4I x
theories 1880. — On the situation in general, see A. Ehrhard: Das Mittelalter und
seine kirchluhe Entwiekelung, igo8.
125 (p. 281.) Cf. Cathein, II, 373. ‘"Naturally we shall only draw into the
circle of our inquiry the societies which result necessarily out of the nature of
mankind, and which alone are fit for and need to be the subjects of a philo-
sophical inquiry, because they alone possess by nature a definite task and a
definite organization. From the point of view* of philosophy, the free societies
are only regarded from the viewpoint of the general principles of law, which
we have already made plain in the section on treaties and covenants (see above,
34° ff')” They are regulated according to the principles of the virtue of
righteousness. At the same time, the observance of covenants which are not
against righteousness is a duty of the lege naturae. This simplifies the Catholic
doctrine of Society very much, and sets aside from the very outset a great mass
of material, with which modern sociology is occupied, in order to find, not
norms of Natural Law, but empirically based general conceptions of sociological
relations. The fundamental and decisive idea is the gathering together into
one of the natural and the normative, for which the Stoic doctrine of the
Law of Nature and the Christian doctrine of Providence provide the founda-
tion. At this point Catholic social doctrine comes into contact with its modern
opposite, the biological-psychologically influenced social doctrine (on this see
P. Barth ; Die Philosophic der Geschichte als Soziologie , I, 1837), for which like-
wise that which is necessary for nature is also the normative, only that in the
one instance nature is interpreted from the point of view of the normative,
and in the other the normative is interpreted from nature. The modem
epistemological idealism on the contrary creates quite other bases for social
ethics, with its fundamental researches into the relation between the natural
and the normative, between the psychological and the valid; cf. Tonnies:
Ethik u. Sozialismus , Archiv XXV.
126 (p. 283.) Cf. Werne , II, 460 and 1 a, 2 ae, qu. g6, art. 3, according to
which even apart from the Fall a natural inequality of humanity in respect of
spiritual and physical qualities would have been developed, and would have
led to natural and necessary conditions of dominion on the part of some.
Most striking of all in this connection is the change in the two main problems,
which from time immemorial had held a predominating position, those of
property and slavery . Here the Early Church and the Stoics denied that private
property or slavery ever had any place within the pure Law of Nature ; they
regarded both as penalties for sin, and as means of curing the evil due to sin.
St. Thomas, however, is now inclined, following Aristotle, to justify both under
certain circumstances, from the point of view of evolution, through considera-
tion for circumstances and utility, within certain limits also from the pure Law
of Nature, without taking the Fall into account. It serves the development of
humanity, he argues, if private property should arise out of the original
negative communism; only its special forms are conditioned by the fallen
state, though indeed Redemption again releases it for the use of all through
the duty of love ; see Janet, I, 374-377 , and 2 a, 2 ae, qu. 37, on Natural and
positive Law, and qu. 66, art . 2, on private property. His views on slavery are
similar, though they are expressed wdth more reserve; in the Expositiones , the
commentary on the Politics of Aristotle, he accepts without question the
argument of Aristotle, who bases slavery upon natural human inequality;
in the Summa , I, qu. g6, art. 3, and 2 a, 2 ae, qu. 57, art. 3, he declares that con-
ditions of sovereignty are necessary from the point of view of Natural Law,
and that they are not sinful ; the slave-relationship, however, is a penalty for
4J2 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
sin, but within the conditions of the fallen state it is justified for the good
both of the slave as well as the master. At the same time he also says that
slavery is due to the law of nations, which is a natural law which takes concrete
circumstances into account without bringing in the idea of sin. See Janet ,
377S79 S on both points, see also Mamenbiechei, who rightly lays stress on the
inconsistencies in the teaching on slavery, while in that on property he lays
most emphasis upon the departure from the ancient teaching of the Fatheis.
With regard to the third chief problem of the Dominium, that of political
sovereignty, it is clear fiom the above that this was held to have been part of
the puie Law of Nature, and that this view was still retained; it is only the
special compulsory form of the royal power which is due to sin, but as a means
of healing the evil of sin it is justified, Janet . I, 398, and De reg. princ II, 8 and 11.
127 (p. 283.) The limits of the Natural Law in the absolute as in the relative
state as the law of commands and of ends within this world, wheiein it agrees
with the Mosaic Law, contrasted with the Gospel law of freedom, love, and
the supernatural-mystical end, see 1a , sae, qu . 107 and 108. Both laws can be
differentiated “secundum quod una prerpinquius ordinat ad finem, alia vero
remotius : puta in una eademque civitate dicitur alia lex, quae imponitur viris
perfectis, qui statim possunt exequi ca, quae pertinent ad bonum commune ;
et alia lex datur dc disciplina puerorum, qui sunt instruendi, qualiler post-
modum opera virorum exequantur 33 , qu. loy, ait . /; here also the idea of
development.
128 (p. 283.) The whole way of thinking which lies behind the ethical
teaching is that the absolute end of the beatitudo or visio dei cxcedens facultalem
ereatwae can only be attained through a preparatory process of self-discipline,
and of the acquisition of merit through natural reason or the Natural Law.
These natural merits, effected by the freedom imparted to man, which are
also due to the share in the education of the world by God which is given to
man, and therefore ultimately to be referred back to the impulse of reason
divinely implanted in man, constitute the disposition and the preparation for
the reception of the virtues implanted by grace. Thus the whole process of
preparation comes under the control and guidance of the final religious end,
and thus of the Church, and, since this preparation is effected by the Lex
Naturae , all this also is included in this Lex. This, however, covers the whole
range of secular activity; ia, sae, qu.94, art. 2; the first is self-preservation with
all that this involves; the second refers to sex-relations and the education
(in the widest sense) of the coming generation. While both these arc common
to man with all creatures ex lege naturae , the third is peculiar to the lex naturae
of humanity — namely, the ends of knowledge and the social combinations of
mankind. Since all this is referred to the absolute end, it is also referred to
the Church, and thus there arises a double conception of the Church, the
Church in the narrower sense, as the sacramental hierarchical institution,
and the Church in the wider sense, as the respublica Chnstiana or the Corpus
Ckristianumox the regnumChristi — that is, as the sum-total of life-relations formed
by the absolute purpose of grace. Feugueray, p. 31 , remarks very aptly: “Every-
where grace is joined with nature, not in order to destroy it, but in order to be
added to it ; and while it dominates nature it also exalts it. This distinctive
element also appears in the question of politics. Beyond and above rational
and philosophical politics there are the politics of theology, whose aim is not
to overthrow it, but to modify its conclusions and give it a different character.
The natural order of human society is thus completed and consummated in
the supernatural order. 33 Thornes quotes (p. 24) from the Commentary on Boethius ;
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 4 i 3
“Nec solum in spiritualibus, sed etiam in usu corporalium dirigit religio
Christiana et beatitudinem animae et corporis repromittit. Et ideo regulae
ejus universales dicuntur, utpote totam vitam hominis et omne, quod ad ipsum
quolibet modo pertinet, et continentes et ordinantes.” At the same time it
must be strongly emphasized that the expression “political” always means
everything social in general, and not simply that which refers to the State,
as St. Thomas says in the explanation of the Neo-Platonic graduated process
of “virtutes purgati animi, puigatoriae et politicae : ‘Est enim considerandum,
quod ad politicas virtutes, secundum quod hie dicuntur, pertinet non solum
bene operari ad commune, sed etiam bene operari ad partes communis sc. ad
domum et aliquam singularem personam’.” Thornes: 72. On the dualistic
conception of the Church and the regnum Christi , see Meyer , 65: “From this point
of view also the moral natural organism of human society is regarded, and as
a glorious member, indissolubly connected, at the same lime, with the super-
natural social organism of the Christian Church, and thus incorporated into
that magnificent world-harmony. 55 On that, cf. De reg. principum , /, 12.
Similarly, 34; “Whoever desires to take in hand the work of social reform
should bear in mind that he is entering a sanctuary which is twice holy. It is
hallowed by the foundation of nature, and it is again hallowed by the Divine
Hand of the World-Redeemer who is the second Adam — also in the social
sense — the regenerating principle of the whole social structure.” Further,
St. Thomas: Summa , III , qu. 8 , arts. 1 and 2: “Genus humanum consideratur
quasi unum corpus, quod vocatur mysticum, cujus caput est ipse Christus et
quantum ad animas et quantum ad corpora. 55 Further passages in Gierke ,
III, 518: “Countless times theologians and canonists use the word ecclesia
in the sense of the whole body of humanity. 55 Vine. Bellovacensis speaks of
“duo latera corporis unius”. In the Summa of Stephan Tornacensis these words
occur: “In eadem civitate sub uno rege duo populi sunt, et secundum duos
populos duae vitae, duo principatus, duplex juiisdictionis ordo procedit” ;
the civitas is the ecclesia , the King is Christ, the peoples are the clergy and the
laity, the two orders of life are the spiritual and the temporal, the principatus
are the sacerdotium and the regnum , the two spheres of administration are the
divinum and the humanum. At the same time a distinction is drawn between
these two orders of life. “The mediaeval spirit is one in this, that it is convinced
that the dualism cannot be final, but that all contradictions and inconsistencies
must finally be lost in a higher unity. 55 Passages which treat of this ad unum
redact, the ordinaiio ad unum , the unitas principle and on the basis of this argument
of the unity and all-inclusive Christian valuation of life, see pp, 519 ff. Further,
this is also the presupposition of the doctrine of the State which is opposed to
the Curia, which only requires that within the system there should be a free
agreement instead of the absolute control of the Church, Gieike , III, 537-539.
129 (p, 283.) This is brought out very clearly in the historical sections of
Ratzingei *s Volkswirtschaft , which really only deals indirectly with the message
of Jesus, since all that he says on this point is that humanity is hallowed by
the fact* that Jesus is the God-Man, and that work and the economic order are
hallowed because He was a carpenter ! Above all, the phrase et cetera adjicientur
vobis is made to cover everything. According to R . it was only possible to
begin with Paul. The patristic teaching also provided very one-sided and
imperfect rules, owing to the fact that it grew up in a situation limited by
the existence of a society wholly sunk in luxury and want. It was only in the
Middle Ages that there was a classic period, to reach which, however, “a long,
long way 55 had to be trodden, and to which the present day ought to return
4 i4 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
while maintaining the fruits of the great progress effected by Capitalism, which
ought to be controlled by the State, and simply made to serve the ends of really
productive labour.
130 (p. 284.) The consciousness of possessing a fundamental theory of this
kind as a panacea for all social ills, characterizes the literature of the Neo-
Thomist movement, see Meyer , p. 5: “The political questions have coalesced
entirely with the social questions. But this solidarity lies much deeper than is
generally supposed. It is in no wise based upon the surface of the external
mutual influence of both these spheres, which are so closely connected with
each other. Their real and their only foundation is no other than the indivisible
unity of the whole moral order of the world. P, 5: “The solution of the social
problem takes place upon the foundation of its unchangeable and holy
principles, which form the natural basis for the whole social organism.”
P. 6: “The unchangeable idea and the essential basis of the social structure.”
P. 7; “The banner of invulnerable and wholesome principles . . . must be held
high by the Church, and its priestly organs, the appointed teachers of morals
and disinterested advisers of the Christian people. 55 P. g: “The Truth of God,
inward harmony and order, that is, the eternal law of morality and of justice,
is its (speaking of society) natural condition of life. 55 P. 23: “The truth and the
unchangeable necessity of a moral principle. 55 P. 28: “The laws of social
existence. 55 — Gierke's Genossenschqftsrecht , ///, really reaches its highest point in
the manifestation of a fundamental theory of this kind. P, 510: “The develop-
ment of the Roman-Canonist corporation theory came into touch at many
points with the aspirations of the mediaeval spirit, which desired to under-
stand in principle the Church and the State as a collective phenomenon, and
thus to comprehend in a scientific manner the nature of human society in
general. Although these endeavours began as far back as the days of the great
Investiture controversy, it was only in the thirteenth century that they bore
fruit in a formulated political theory. From that time forward these political
doctrines were continued and developed in an unbroken process of development,
and they became the supporters of the first independent philosophy of the
State and of Law. And precisely for this reason they introduced an entirely
new force into the history of conceptions of law. This result was due to the
combined labours of various sciences. Theology and scholastic philosophy,
political history and practical party politics, here came together in the same
sphere with corporative jurisprudence. Although the various standpoints,
aims, and methods were very unequal, and different from each other, here,
as everywhere else, mediaeval science preserved a far-reaching unity and
collective spirit. For, first of all, mediaeval society shared a common outlook
upon the world, whose main principles were regarded by the mediaeval spirit
not as an invention of its own, but as the revealed presupposition of human
science. Thus men borrowed right and left from each other what they needed.
... In this way the most varied elements from many different sources came
to be combined together in one system: (1) The Holy Scriptures and their
interpretation; (2) the patristic teaching, and, above all, the teaching of
Augustine, about the Divine State, provided the specifically Christian features
of the mediaeval doctrine of Society ; (3) through the mediaeval legends of
history and the popular views which they introduced there came in the
Germanic ideas peculiar to the mediaeval spirit ; (4) the reawakening of the
ancient philosophy ~of the State, and, above all, of the Politics of Aristotle,
which became the settled canon in these matters, was from the very outset in
any case the standard for the scientific form of the whole doctrine; (5) and ’to
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 415
all these sources jurisprudence added an immense mass of the material of
positive law which was treasured up in Roman and Canon Law and to some
extent in the newer legislation of the Church.* 5 Gierke regards the nature of the
order of Society which was thus constructed as the 4 ‘organic idea” ; he pays no
special attention to the idea of Patriarchalism.
131 (p. 285.) On this question, cf. Thomas: Contra Gent., III , 16-25, the world
order and all existence in general intended for God alone, III , 1 12-121 , the
connection of the Leges given to man with an organic whole, directed towards
the supreme aim of the love of God ; on the starting-point and the type of the
organic way of thinking in the Corpus mysticum Chnsti , see the Snmma , III, qu. 8 ,
and in particular the exposition of the passages which contain the parable of
the Body {Rom. xii and 1 Cor. xii) in Epist. ad Romanos, c. XII, lectio II, and
ad Corinth I, c. XII, lectio 1—3. The application of the organic idea in the
Platonist and Aristotelian sense, as well as in the Scriptural sense, to human
societies in general, and to the State in particular, De reg . princ ., I, c. 1-3, 12 . —
This subject is handled excellently by Gierke: Genossenschqftsrecht, III, and
Althusius. The general idea of the organism of the world, of humanity, of the
individual sectional societies, of the Church, of the State, of the Pamily, and
of all the social combinations in between, after the example of the animate
universe, of the relation of body and soul, of the animal organism, of the
Platonist microcosm according to which the macrocosm of the State is man
on the large scale, and according to the specific Aristotelian doctrine, issues
from a collective will flowing from reason, out of a special category, realizing
definite ends for a definite purpose, see Gierke, III, 514-51 J ; the articulation
within this organism on the basis of the inequality due to nature, and the
division of labour to which this gives rise, with the relation of each member
to the collective whole (III, 553-556). An excellent summary in Althusius, pp. Go-
62. There is similar material, though less complete, in Maurenbrecher, pp. 25-38.
M. emphasizes that the argument for the necessity of the organism of Society
in St. Thomas differs from that of Aristotle, in the latter it is the striving of
reason, which only in the political community comes to its full exercise, and
only in this self-activity of the reason of the community is the welfare of man
achieved ; in St. Thomas the reason is the necessity for the division of labour
and the complementary system of callings and profits, which again plays no
part in the theory of Aristotle. In this M. sees a diffeient orientation of the
organic idea from that of Aristotle, arguing that involuntarily St. Thomas
has derived this idea from the social organization of the Middle Ages, which
was always present to his consciousness. To Aristotle the Thomist interpreta-
tion would seem very materialistic. This is certainly true, but it is not the
most important aspect of the question. The real example is the Corpus Mysticum
of the Church, which, in accordance with the well-known Pauline parable,
represents the division of labour through its different classes and callings.
This is the idea which has been transferred with all its implications to the
doctrine of society which we are considering ; all the organic groupings are
called technically corpora mystica , and even the organization of these secular
corpora mystica are described as a hierarchy ; see the references and quotations
in Gierke, III, 518, 546-553 ; Althusius, 132-135 , 22J f. The way in which this
organic idea rose is a comparatively indifferent matter — whether through force
and compulsion, the impulse of reason, or a social contract — since in all God
effects the causa remola, and even the contractual origin was only conditioned
by the impulse of reason, operative in the groups which thus came together
under the guidance of God ; indeed, even if the origin were due to force, this also
416 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
was under the control of Providence. See Gierke , III , 568-381 556; Althmius,
63, 66. The decisive element is this : that in actual fact all the various views
and opinions about the question of the origin of the social groups always end
in the idea of the organism, and its necessity from the point of view of the
Divine Reason. Wheie the theories about the manner in which this idea of the
organism arose took an independent line, and came to conclusions which
differed from those of the tempoial-spiritual organism, then the distinctive
Catholic idea was left behind, and these theories tended to develop along
the lines of modern thought, whether in the diiection of the doctrine of
sovereignty, or of the democratic Law of Nature; after the gieat thinkers of
the sixteenth century, who were occupied with the doctrine of the State and
of Society, the genuine Thonust ideal with some modernized alterations was
again asserted afresh ovci against these modem theories. Cf. Gothein; Staat und
Gesellschcift des Z eit alters der Gegemeformation in Kid tin det Gegenwart, //, 5 . —
See also the brief but informative treatment of the subject by Th. Meyer , s8-yo s
and Cathrein , //, 373~379 •
132 (p. 287.) The patriarchal idea lurks behind all those expressions of
opinion upon the organism which deal with Paul and the Corpus Mystuwn ,
whereas the statements which arc based on Aristotle (and indirectly on Plato)
are only concerned with social necessities and requit cments for the unity of
the whole. Here, then, the purely ethical Pauline ideas are apparent, which
only desire to reconcile the inequalities of real life with the religious equality
of the children of God, and to overcome the former by ethical means, but
which had no intention of establishing an organic theory of Society. Here the
expositions of Rom . xii and 1 Cor . .Vz 7 , which have already been mentioned,
are highly characteristic. The starting-point for such leflcctions is provided
by the inequalities of mankind, which, in the view of St. Thomas, belong to
the nature of humanity. On the one hand they are implied in the idea of the
organism and of the division of labour, but there are also other reasons.
(1) Also in St. Thomas there enters in the idea of the inscrutable Divine Will,
which has placed human beings in the world, not, as in the sub-human sphere,
as a unified species, but as individuals, each of whom has a special significance,
and which further, through Predestination and Providence, has placed essential
differences between them; Contra Gent 3 III , c* iqj: “Sola creatura rationalis
dirigitur a Deo ad suos actus non solum secundum specicm, sed etiam secundum
individuum/’ But the differences which thus result from this are, in spite of
the share which men take in the government of the world by God tin o ugh
reason, still conditioned by the Divine Providence: “ Part ici pal rationalis
creatura divinam providentiam non solum secundum gubernari, sed etiam
secundum gubernare. . . . Omnis autem inferior providentia divinae provi-
dentiae subditur quasi supremae. Gubcrnatio igitur aetuum rationalis creaturae,
inquantum sunt actus personales, ad divinam providentiam pcrtinct.” This,
however, produces strongly marked differences; Lectio III ad Cor . I xii :
“Etsi membrorum distinctio sit opus naturae, hoc tamen agit natura ut
instrumentum divinae providentiae.” Hence Paul says: “unum quodque
eorum in corpore”; but Paul adds: “et, sicut voluit, posuit Deus membra
diversa,” on which Thomas comments: “Nam prima causa institutionis
rerum est voluntas divina secundum illud Psalm 113 ‘omna quaecunque voluit
fecit’. Sic autem et in Ecclesia disposuit diversa officia et diversos status [this
includes also the secular members] secundum suam voluntatem: unde et
Ephes. I, ii, dicitur 'praedestinati secundum propositum ejus, qui operatur
omnia secundum consilium voluntatis suae’. 55 At the same time we must
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 4 1 7
remember that St. Thomas believed firmly in predestination; he pronounces
free will as a form of carrying out the Will of God and evil as a defectus ;
Contra Gent., III , 402 : “necesse est praedictam distinctionem hominum ab
aeterno a Deo esse ordinatam.” This implies that the positive Divine Will has
a large sphere of action, even in matters which are not directly concerned with
the salvation of mankind, although in the conception of God Reason is placed
above Will : here is one of the most obscure elements in the Thomist system,
the irrational aspect is neither in the conception of God nor anywhere else
really set aside, although the system claims to be as rational as possible, (2) The
differences are natural, as St. Thomas emphasizes everywhere, in which he
follows Aristotle: “Illi qui intellectu preeminent, naturaliter dominantur;
illi vero qui sunt intellectu deficientes, corpore vero robusti, a natura videntur
instituti ad serviendum. 33 This natural inequality serves the purposes of order,
which only becomes wrong when natural inequality is turned into an unnatural
inequality by sin and passion: “inordinatio provenit ex eo, quod non propter
intellectus praeeminentiam aliquis praeest, sed vel robore corporali dominium
sibi usurpat, vel propter sensualem affectionem aliquis ad regendum piae-
ficitur. . . . Hujusmodi autem inordinatio divinam providentiam non excludit,
provenit enim ex permissione divina propter defectum infenorum agentium,
sicut ct de aliis malis supciius dictum est. 33 (3) This leads to the argument
that the inequalities which do not coincide with a just order are due to the
Fall; this idea recurs constantly. (4) The ultimate reason lies in positive law,
which in the form of government and of class privilege according to circum-
stances makes distinctions, which find their expression quite naturally in
special claims on life, the desire to be honoured, and for a special share in the
bonum commune. The doctrine of the justiiia distribution is of special interest in
this connection; it is held that this regulates the share of the individual groups
and persons in the bonum commune of society; Summa , 2 a, 2 ae, qu. 61 , a. 2:
“in distributiva justitia datur alicui privatae personae, inquantum id, quod
est totius, est debitum parti; quod quidem tanto majus est, quanto ipsa pars
majorem principalitatem habet in toto. Et ideo in distributiva justitia tanto
plus alicui de bonis communibus datur, quanto majorem ilia persona habet
principalitatem in communitate. Quae quidem principalitas attenditur in
aristocratica secundum virtutes, in oligarchica secundum divitias, in demo-
cratica secundum libertatem et in aliis aliter.” In line with Aristotle this share
in the goods belonging to the whole is to be in proportion to the individual’s
position in society. Hence the varied penalties for offences against various
persons of high position ; hence also “respect of persons 33 before the law is
not only not contrary to righteousness, but it is even required by distributive
righteousness (justice), cf. ibid., qu. 62 , de acceptione personarum . The original
illustration of such a position of dominance, conditioned by the force of nature,
by the corruption due to sin, by the Divine order, and by human positive
law, together with the ethical development in this relationship through the
voluntary loving mutual relations within it, is the Family, with the patria
potestas over the wife, the children, and the domestics; see ibid., qu. 57, a. 4:
“utrum jus dominativum et jus paternum debeant distingui” : the idea of
law cannot be applied to the family relationship, since children and domestics
belong inherently to the master, and are not persons who have an independent
position apart from him, a charactei'islic which, in a modified form, is also
applied to the wife ; but in so far as the wife, the children, and the domestics
are also regarded as human beings, they also have rights of their own: “ideo
inquantum uterque (filius et servus) est homo, aliquo modo ad eos est justitia
rm
4 i8 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
et propter hoc etiam aliquae leges dantur dc his, quae sunt patiis ad filium
vel domini ad servum ; sed inquantum uterque cst aliquid al terms [that is,
a part of the master himself], secundum hoc deficit ibi perfecta ratio. . . .
Uxor autem, quamvis sit aliquid viri, . . . tamen magis distinguitur a viro
quam films a patre vel sezvus a domino . . . inter eos non est etiam simpliciter
politicum justum, sed magis justum oeconomicum.” These formulas come
from Aristotle; for the actual social content, which they conceal, sec the
excellent observations of Marianne Weber , in her Ekeftau and Mntta , £00~2y8.
The Christian-ethical transference of these legal ldationships into the sphere
of the freedom and love in Christ is revealed in the expositions of the Bible
which have been already quoted, and in the tractates on the theological
virtue of love and harmony, to which St. Thomas himself alludes (ibid., qu. So),
on the “virtutes justitiae annexae” and qu. Si : tc de aliis autem hie enumeratis
supra dictum est partim in tractatu de caritate, sc. de concordia et aliis
hujusmodi.” In this, however, the Family is the pattern for the ethical trans-
formation of all conditions of force, superioiity, and inequality; De jeg.pnnc
1, i: “Qui domum regit non rex, sed patcifamilias dicitur, habet tamen
aliquam sinfilitudinem regis, propter quam aliquando reges populorum pat res
vocantur.” On the subject of the Family, including the domesths, as the
source of all the overcoming of inequality through patriarchal-ethical ideas,
see also Th. Meyer, 70-142, especially p . y8: “In this original social institution,
which bears upon the face of it the traces of the ordci ing of the Hand of God,
the organic inequality of the members appears as a fundamental law. This
means, however, that this shows us the pattern of the Divine Plan for the
whole formation of Society from the smallest beginnings up to the formation
of a nation. For the further structure must inevitably follow the lines laid down
at the beginning.” The same emphasis is laid upon the family ideal as the
patriarchal spirit of walling service and love extended to cover the whole of
society by Ratzinger , in his Die Volkswirtschaft in ihren sitt lichen Gnmdlagen , p. 474 ;
“In the Family we find already the fundamental moral laws, according to
which society could develop and ought to progress. These principles are love
and freedom. Parental love cares for the helpless child, and after a long process
of training and development the child is given a suitable sphere of activity in
which he can move freely. Out of the love of the parents there arises the
authority, the right, to influence the activity of the members of the family,
to guide them into a definite direction and thus to confine them within certain
limits. Since, however, this authority only issues from love, it is dear that
freedom will not be limited more than the kindly forethought of the head of
the family sees that it is necessary for the good of the whole. Love, authority,
union on the one hand, freedom, justice, equality on the other hand, form the
foundations of the social structure, of the family on a small scale, of Society
on a large scale.” P . 406: “All cannot have the same share to the same degree.
Society is graduated rather on patriarchal and hierarchical lines; there will
always be distinctions, high and low, rich and poor. But there is one thing
which is not necessary, and that is that there should be, as there are to-day,
those who are disinherited. Every human being can and ought to have his
own share in the whole, according to his social position and the work which
he renders.”
1S3 (p. 289.) On this point cf. Feugueray and Baumann, and in particular
Gierke , where all these features are carefully gathered together, and are illus-
trated from a very wide range of reading, which extends far beyond the litera-
ture on St. Thomas himself. There also the Thomist passages are indicated;
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 41 9
on subjective public right, as the result of membership in the organism and the
relation to the central end, see especially pp. 555, 569-574, 595-59*9, 619-621,
the right of resistance, 624-626 ; Althusius , 238 and 275 ; von Eicken , 550 and
557. Further illustrations of such democratic-individualistic views based upon
the Catholic organic conception of Natural Law are provided by Figgis: From
Gerson to Grot ins, Cambridge , 1907, in which the development of the modern
democratic idea of the Law of Nature from the ecclesiastical ideas is described
in a very instructive way. How far modern Catholicism is in a position to
enter into democratic-individualistic-rationalistic ideas is shown by the
well-known Spectator Letters. From Hitze: Kapital- Arbeit ; Uhlhorst: Kath . u. ProL
gegenuher der sozialen Frage, i88y, quotes thus : “Revolutions are deeds of the
spirit, in them the moral element far exceeds the material. ... It is a struggle
between the historical forces and the rights of reason, a struggle between free
personality and the rigidity of society, of the untrammelled, untamed spirit
against the despiritualized form, of progress against stagnation, of the right
which is being won against that which has been won, and since a peaceful
reconciliation is not possible, the decision must be won by the sword, at the
price of blood; this is almost a necessity of nature 55 ( p . 25). All this, however,
is conceived within the framework of the organic idea of Thomism. There it is
said that there is a right to resist a tyrant, or a ruling authority which is not
fulfilling its end of reason. It is a technical phrase taken from Aristotle’s ethic.
Those public subjective rights, however, are not granted by the State, or only
made into rights by the recognition of the State, but they are to be understood
in the light of the natural law of the organic idea, obligatory for the State
and to be maintained by the Church ; this is a fundamental difference from
the modern point of view on the law of the State; cf. Jellinek : System der sub -
jekliven offentlichen Reekie 3 , 1905. Hence there is nothing which modern Catholic
literature opposes so hotly as the idea that the State has the right to create laws.
138b (p. 291.) For the communistic features, see below, in the discussion of
the conceptions of property. It ought to be emphasized that this communism
is always only relative in character, and to be introduced only in case of need.
Further, the mediaeval period, with its lack of the individualistic-liberal-
capitalistic economic order, and with the comparative domination of a com-
munistic spirit in social actualities, did not need to emphasize it in principle.
In the present-day reaction against the liberal economic order which has
come into being in the interval, Catholicism now brings out its communistic
elements, and lays stress on them in principle, and to this extent it comes very
near to the Socialists, as Uhlhorn : Prot . u . Kath ., in a whole series of examples,
notes, with proper Lutheran disapproval, pp . 21-26 ; see also G . Wermert: Ffeuere
SQzialpolitische Anschauungen im Katholizismus innerhalb Deutschlands , Jena, 1885 ,
also the social pronouncements of Leo XIII. This Catholic communism is,
however, always only relative, under the control of the Church, and aims at
the social unity of certain classes, with a system of mutual support and self-
limitation, that is, it remains within the framework of the class-organic idea ;
Uhlhorn, pp. 22 , 27, 9/., gives illustrations of this also.
134 (p. 292.) On the “traditionalist 55 character of the system, and the insistence
on the duty of remaining within the traditional calling and position to which
one has been assigned in society, the taboo on changing one’s calling, with the
possible exception of entering the monastic life, see Maurenhrecher , 48, go, §3, 83 ;
for the “traditionalist” character of economic thought in particular, in which
the leading idea is the preservation for each individual of the basis of existence
in accordance with one’s class, and the guaranteeing of such a degree necessary
420 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
for existence (which may not be exceeded) through government and guild
regulations, and which also stresses the need for frugality and contentment
with little, see Ratzlnger: Die Volkswirtschaft in ihren sitthchen Gnmdlagcn , 1881;
R . sees in the return to these principles, and in submission to government
regulations founded on these principles — connected with Capitalism (which
cannot be set aside) and with the division oflabour — the Ghiistian challenge
to the social science of the present day. The mediaeval period “manifested this
brilliant result of Christian civilization” ( p . 144). Through sacrifice, he. through
the renunciation of the freely calculating methods of production which belong
to the Capitalist system, and the renewal of the patiiarchal spirit, the society
of the present day, which is on the edge of a precipice, must achieve this return
to these "principles (p. 403 ). On the traditionalist character of the Thomist
doctrine of the calling, and of economics, see also A fax Weber: Die Prot. Ethik ,
etc., Archie . XX, 20-26; XXI, 81-83 • On the pati iarchal-conservative view
of political matters see the tractate De reg . princ., which only allows a right of
resistance of a very limited kind with reference to a morally bad and godless
Prince, but which otherwise exalts the* religious Prince who fulfils his duty in
the spirit of love, as the representative of God, and assures him that he will
have a special place in heaven with a special reward ; cf. the heaven of the
princes in Dante’s Paradise.
136 (p- 296.) On this point cf. Maurenbi echer , 29-38; Max Weber: Protest.
Ethik . Archie, XX, 36-42. F rom this point of view ethics often become absolutely
the ethic of the class and the calling or profession; see the analysis of the ethic
of Anthony of Florence which is based upon St. Thomas in Gass , /, 375-383 ;
“The ethic which was intended to be universal becomes immediately confined
within the limits of a class morality, which continues to dominate it,” “a
conservative ecclesiastical system of ethics based upon routine, works, merits,
obedience, and indulgences.” “Excessive emphasis upon the merit of
obedience,” “a pedantic enumeration of the courtesies which one has to
offer to one’s superiors and to dignitaries.” — For the contrast between this
way of acting and that of the society of late antiquity see the great article by
Max Weber: Agrargeschichte (Altertum) in the Handworterbuch der Staatswissen -
schaftens ; especially p. 67 . — The Catholicism of the present day, with its
deliberate emphasis upon culture also lays stress upon the idea of the calling.
Uhlhorn: Katholizismus und Protestantismus gegenuber der sozialen Frage, 1887, thinks
therefore that in this point modern Catholicism is “Lutheran” in its spirit,
and that “the life of the world is regarded from a very different point of view
from that of St. Thomas”. But that is quite wrong. The ethic of civilization
of St. Thomas according to the principle : “Gratia praesupponit et perficit
naturam”, contains all the principles of modem Catholicism. “The Inter-
pretation of the Thomist doctrine”. P . 11: “It would be best of all if all men
and women could become monks and nuns and lead a contemplative life.
This is, however, impossible; it is a necessity for man to lead the active life
instead of the contemplative, that is, that he must work, because otherwise he
would starve. St. Thomas gives no higher place to work than this”, is, it is
true, a view which is held by very many Protestants, but it is positively false.
It is based upon isolated expressions, which it uses as a basis for sweeping
generalizations, in a quite inadmissible way ; above all, it overlooks the fact
that the Thomist system, taken as a whole, is precisely a cultural system,
which, in its own day, was very modern. Every Catholic Congress, with its
glorification of culture based upon Thomism, reveals this very plainly to those
who wish to see.
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 421
137 (p. 298.) See above, Note 132; and also Mauretibrecher , 6*5-75; in spite of
the fact that he admits the universal duty of work, St. Thomas draws very
clear distinctions ; he distinguishes between mental and physical labour, and
under the latter head he makes further distinctions, placing the aristocratic
and noble callings far above those which are not noble, and those which are
executed by men who are unfree. He places the dependent wage-earners,
who do not take part in the municipal government and who probably weie
themselves originally not free, among the mechanics and dirty people;
similarly, with his townsman’s point of view, he places the peasants in a
subordinate position ; the unfree he often regards with the natural depreciation
of Aristotle, even when he allows that they also are human beings with human
rights. All this, however, is a concession to Naturalism which is in striking
contrast with the fundamental ideas of Christianity. These ideas arise only too
easily out of Patriarchalism, just as they often occur very easily among the
Conservatives of the present day, however much they may lay stress on their
Christian piety. See also Feugueray , pp . 60-81, who argues that this Naturalism
is due to the psychology of St. Thomas, that is, that it arises from his doctrine
of the effectuation of individualization through the physical elements of the
organism. This would lead ultimately to predestination. This is right, but it
is only one element in the intellectual process of Patriarchalism. That, fuither,
predestination and Naturalism really come to the same thing, even though
differently expressed, is rightly suggested by Jodi , /, 167, in agreement with
Feuerbach . The form of expression, however, makes a great deal of difference ;
if it disappears, Patriarchalism easily develops into the masterful point of
view which demands service from all ; it was easier to make this mistake in the
Middle Ages than it is to-day, since to-day we have not only the conservative
Christian argument before our eyes, but also the idea of evolution in the
Darwin sense.
139 (p. 298.) Here, and in the following sections, I keep very closely to
the very exact presentation of the organic idea in Thomism of Th. Meyei : Die
christlich-eihischen Sozialprinzipien , pp. 45-47 > 7 &- Man, as a reflection of God’s
Providence, takes his share in the creation of the State ; it is not a work of the
impulse of nature but of reason, the State is under the guidance of Providence
and belongs to the organic type of world-unity controlled by the wisdom of
God. See also Gierke, III , 556, 629 ff. St. Thomas emphasizes the ratio constituent
civitatem,
141 (p- 2 99*) On this point see the remarkably instructive articles by H.
Dietzel: Beit) age zur Geschichte des Sozialismus , Z-f- Lit. und Geschichte der Staais -
wissenschaften , I. D. quotes Plato: “We have given to each his portion, and
thus have made the whole beautiful”, and he adds: “this passage contains
one of the most plastic and concrete formulations of the "organic social
theory’ ”, namely, in so far as it concerns the objective idea of the whole, and
is not thinking of the value of the individual ( p . 394). Thus we find also m
St. Thoijxas passages in which he speaks of the pulchritudo or the beauty of the
whole, as the meaning of the organic idea, and makes this the argument for
the differences in position of the various members; De reg. princ. 3: “Non
enim est pulchritudo in corpore, nisi omnia membra fuerint decenter disposita ;
turpitudo autem contingit, quodcunque membrum indecenter se habeat;
Epist. I ad Cor . , Lectio I ; “Pertinet autem ad decorem et perfectionem ecclesiae,
ut in ea diversa ministeria sint, quae significantur per ordines ministrantium,
quod mirabatur regina Saba in domo Salomonis.” Ibid., Lectio III: “Perfectio
corporis non tota consistit in uno membro, quamvis nobiliori, sed ad ejus
422 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
perfectionem requiruntur etiam ignobiliora”, and “Ita etiam [as in the
organic body] in Ecclesia sine officio abjectarum personarum, puta agricul-
torum et aliorum hujusmodi, praesens vita transiri non possit, quae tamen
posset ducisine aliquibus excellentioribus personis contemplationi etsapientiae
deputatis, quae Ecclesiae deserviunt ad hoc, quod sit ornatior et melius se
habeas”. This is the Platonist aspect of the social thought of Thomism which
sacrifices the individual entirely to the realization of the idea. It is likewise the
fundamental character of the idealistic doctrine of the State taught by Hegel ;
see the treatment of this point by Dietzd in his Rodbeitus. See also the same
author’s article Individualismus in the Handwbiterbuch da Staatswissensch often .
St. Thomas connects this idea with the idea of the glory of God. Cf. Summa ,
/, qu. 65, ait. 2: “Aequalitas justitiae locum habet in retribuendo ; justum est
enim quod aequalibus aequalia retribuantur. Non autem habet locum in
prima rerum institutione. Sicut enim artifex ejusdem generis lapides in
diversis partibus aedificii ponit absque injusticia, non propter aliquam
diversitatem in lapidibus praecedentem, sed attendens ad perfectionem totius
aedificii quae non esset, nisi lapides diveisimode in aedificio collocarentur, sic
et Deus a principio, ut esset perfectio in universo, divcrsas et inaequalcs
creaturas institut, secundum suam sapientiam absque injustitia, nulla tamen
praesupposita meritorum distinctione.”
112 (p. 299.) This inconsistency is raised everywhere by St. Thomas, since
his conception of the member, of the ojjicium and minute) ium 7 still aims at
giving each member a share in the whole and his ethic desires to establish a
religious-ethical equality, in spite of all existing differences. This is the tendency
of the whole idea of the Patriarchalism of love, and in it the organic idea
finds its complement. See also Meyer in the section: “There is nothing more
harmful especially for the inner social relations of the commonwealth than
the misinterpretation borrowed from paganism of the fundamental organic
character of society” (pp. 57-70). This is directed against the Platonist, Aristo-
telian, Hegelian conception of the organic idea, and emphasizes instead the
idea of Christian individualism, which requires not the realization of an
abstract idea, but that the individual shall have a share in the highest values
of life. P . 58: “The Socialistic ideal of Plato which means death to freedom.”
“Both Plato and Aristotle lacked the same thing, namely, the Christian key
to the full understanding of that (organic) principle, the right estimate of the
personal dignity of man.” P . 61: “The striking similarity between the neo-
pagan and the ancient pagan conception and estimate of a principle which
is not in itself a wrong one is in no way accidental. It is based upon its opposi-
tion to the Christian interpretation of the social organism which alone is true.”
P. 65: “The chief corrective lay precisely in the Chiistian consciousness, and
particularly in the Christian estimate of the personal dignity of man. We need
only listen to two main representatives of the specifically Christian social
philosophy, St. Augustine and St. Thomas.” How, however, such an indi-
vidualism can exist along with the organic idea, neither Meyer nor '•either of
the men whom he cites can say. In reality, as has been shown above, this idea
cancels out the organic principle altogether, and the name only remains.
Certainly we are here dealing with the most difficult point in social ethics;
not the individual as such, but the individual who is filled with absolute
ethical values has a value of his own, and each can only claim to aim at the
attainment of these values ; on the other hand, however, owing to the qualities
given by nature, those values are not realized for and in all individuals, or at
least they are not realized for and in all in the same way, so that all that can
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 423
be said with any certainty is that those values have a directive influence upon
the whole, while numerous individuals are utilized simply as presuppositions
and means. Thus every kind of social ethic fluctuates between the realization
of the objective values in themselves, and the subjective share in them taken
by individuals, with great concessions to Naturalism; cf. my remarks on the
report by von Schultze-Gavernitz , in the Protokollen des Ev. soz . Kong? esses, 1907.
143 (p- 300.) For authority as the soul of the whole organism, see the Summa
sa, 2 ae, qu. 60, art . 9: “Potestas saecularis subditur spiritual! sicut corpus
animae”; ibid., I, qu. 96, art . 4: “Quandoque multa ordinantur ad unum,
semper invenitur unum ut principale et dirigens”; Contra Gent., IV, 76:
“optimum autem regimen multitunidis est, ut regatur per unum . . . unitatis
congruentior causa est unus quarn multi” ; Summa , 2 a, 2 ae, qu. 10, a. 11:
“Humanum regimen derivatur a divino regimine et ipsum debet imitari”.
Contra Gent., IV, 76: “Manifestum est, quod, quamvis populi distinguantur per
diversas dioeceses et civitates, tamen sicut est una ecclesia, ita oportet esse
unum populum Christianum. Sicut igitur in spirituali populo unius ecclesiae
requiritur unus episcopus quisit totius,populi caput, ita in toto populo christiano
requiritur quod unus sit totius ecclesiae caput.” De reg. princ., I, c. 2: “Mani-
festum est, quod unitatem magis efficere potest, quod est per se unum quam
plures,” that means the monarchical constitution of each organism. The
original influence of the Aristotelian organic idea is here as plain as in the
basing of the organic idea on the division of labour and of services, and as
here the guiding principle is the original image of the corpus mysticum, so there
it was the original image of the uniform ecclesiastical idea. On authority
as the centre of the organism, see further Gierke, III, 517-547 , 560 /., and
especially p. 555: “Finally it came to be held that the nature of an organism
required absolutely one unifying force, which as summum movens should vivify,
guide, and set the standard for all the other forces ; thus men came to formulate
the statement that every social body needs a dominant section (pars pnncipans) ;
it is immaterial whether this is regarded as the head, the heart, or the soul of
the whole. From the comparison of the ruler of the whole to the head there
arose in many quarters even the idea that the monarchy was a natural institu-
tion, since there can be only one head ; indeed, frequently men went further
still, and declared that apart from union with the natural head the whole
body and each member of the same was deprived of life altogether.” This
was applied particularly to the Pope in his position over the Church and
over the respublica Christiana. Th. Meyer writes in a similar vein, p. 50 : “Authority,
the essential controlling element in every form of society, which, as its soul,
likewise conditions its unity” ; p. 66: “Although, on the one hand, St. Thomas
emphasizes rightly that the natural process of social development from the
particular to the general, from the family to the community, and to the
civic society, to this extent develops from below upwards, his teaching cannot
be rightly understood, especially the ideal purpose of this wonderful spiritual
organism, unless we stand in spirit at the central point of the whole world-order.
From tTiis point of view then do we see the question of authority in the right
light, as the essential element in Society in essence and origin, in its aim and
its task, in its relation upwards to God, and downwards to its inferiors and
dependents. This light, however, shines with its illumination upon the inner
relation of the organic parts to each other intended by the Creator and upon
their relation to the whole. Indeed, to a great extent this truth even illuminates
the principles of a sound political economy and of good administration.”
On that point, see also Contra Gent., Ill, 1-5; IV, 23. Hence in the organic
424 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
idea Meyer distinguishes the constitutive from the administrative organism,
p. 55, the former is the Aristotelian idea, the latter is the Catholic idea, which
is supported by the former.
114 (p. 302.) Cf. the section on asceticism in this work; also the section
which deals with the architectonic character of the thought of Thomism;
a classical expression of this in Maisilius of Padua in dale , III, 552: “com-
ponitur (the organism) ex quibusdam proportionatis partibus invlcem
ordinatis suaque opera sibi mutuo communicantibus et ad totum.” In St.
Thomas, see the explanation of j Cor . xii, lectio III, in which he says that the
act'wi are necessary for the contemplative “indigent enim contemplativi per opeia
activorum sustentari” and likewise the laity for the prelates, who could not
exist without them. How the state of virginity exists as a complementary state
alongside of the state of regular marriage, is explained by Ratzinger : p . 54:
“Virginity, far from being as is said as a reproach, an institution which brings
sterility into society, is rather a cause which maintains fruitfulness. The
explanation of this apparent contradiction lies in its moral order, in the power
of example, in the energy of sacrifice* The state of celibacy, through the
greatest sacrifices, the most heroic renunciation, and the highest virtues,
awakens the moral energy of those who are married, and thus helps to ward
off the dangers which threaten the honour of the family and of marriage
when the energy of sacrifice is wanting.” On the quantitative inequality of
perfection, that is, of the actual relation to the central purpose of the organism,
cf. Summa , / a, 2 ae, qu. 108, a . 4: “Quod homo totaliter ea, quae sunt mundi,
abjiciat, non est necessarium ad proveniendum ad finem praedictum, quia
potest homo utens rebus hujus mundi dummodo in eis fmem non constituat,
ad beatitudinem aeternam pervenire. Sed expeditius perveniet totaliter bona
hujus mundi abdicando et ideo de hoc dantur consilia evangelii.” Thereby
the natural tendency or disposition is the decisive element: “Praedicta consilia,
quantum est de se, sunt omnibus expedientia, sed ex indispositione aliquorum
contingit, quod alicui expedientia non sunt, quia eorum affectus ad ea non
inclinantur.” Here again the doctrine of predestination and the positing of
the Divine Will are in the background. On the quantitative differences
extending even into the blessedness of heaven, see Contra Gent., Ill , 5 8 : “Quum
finis proportionaliter respondeat his, quae sunt ad finem, oportet, quod sicut
aliqua diversimode praeparantur ad finem, ita diversimode participent finem.
Visio autem divinae substantiae est ultimus finis cujuslibet intellectualis
substantiae. Intellectuales autem substantiae non omnes acqualitcr praeparan-
tur ad fmem; quaedam enim sunt majoris virtutis et quaedam minoris;
virtus autem est via ad felicitalem. Oportet igitur quod in visionc divina sit
diversitas, quod quidam perfectius et quidam minus perfecte divinam sub-
stantiam videant. . . . Idem ergo est, quod omnes beatos facit, non lamen ab
eo omnes aequaliter beatitudinem capiunt.”
145 (p. 305.) On this point cf. Ratzinger: Gesch. d . kirchlichen Armmpjlege , which
treats the mediaeval period better than the corresponding work of Uhlhom ,
p. 2471 “By the close of the twelfth century the church system of poor relief,
based on the regulations laid down during the Carolingian period (which
was itself the transformation of the free system of the Primitive Church into
one which came under the State) had almost everywhere come to an end ;
the parish took no trouble or responsibility for its poor any longer ; the secular
clergy no longer had any desire to undertake the work of poor relief. Ecclesi-
astical legislation, which was now exercised exclusively by the Popes (in
contrast with the legislation of the Councils of th© Early Church, which
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 425
regulated officially the system of poor relief), no longer regarded the relief
of the poor as part of its activity, and the funds of the Church had entirely
forfeited the character of a poor fund. It was only the regular clergy who did
not forget their duties to the poor, and so long as there were monasteries they
carried on works of charity. To the monasteries there was added a new factor,
that of the confraternities and Orders, which drew their recruits from the
ranks of the laity, and who took the place of an ordered ecclesiastical system of
poor relief, in order that the decline of the latter might not be felt too acutely.
Almost at the same time the life of the corporations in the towns was formed,
the guilds were founded, and part of their duty was to care for the needs of
their impoverished members. These are the elements which gradually came to
the fore after the Crusades, and stepped into the place left vacant by the
ecclesiastical system of outdoor poor relief, without being able to replace the
latter. It was impossible for the monasteries to exercise that strict control
which is necessary in this work of poor relief, if it is not to do more harm than
good, and the confraternities and Orders confined their labours almost
exclusively to the work in the hospitals. That which the congregation had done
in the Early Church, with its pastor at its head, in the way of caring for the
poor in their own homes, had now become an unattainable ideal. Hencefor-
ward certainly the reproach that the Church simply gave alms, but no real
relief, was to a great extent justified. 55 It is characteristic of St. Thomas that
alongside of his presentation of the personal morality in the ascent from the
natural virtues to the supernatural, and alongside of his social philosophy
with its cosmos of the natural-supernatural organism, the question of a social
reform, or even of a mission of the Church for the healing of social evils, does
not arise at all ; on the lack of any idea of social reform in his teaching, in this
sense, see Maurenbrecher , p. 43: “In the thought of St. Thomas the way of life
for everyone is determined by his class and position in society, into which he
is born through the power of the inscrutable Will of Providence ; no one ought
to sink below the level of the class into which he is born ; but to attempt to
strive to rise above it is also forbidden. A social elevation of the lower classes,
an “upward development of the masses 55 is, therefore, entirely alien to the
thought of St. Thomas ; his social ideal is thoroughly conservative ; in this he
was in harmony with the mind of his age in these matters. 55 See also p. 88f. }
also Feugueray , p. 2igf.;Uhlhorn : Liebestatigkeit , II, 448. To what a great extent
also modern Catholic social ideals are a return to the natural-supernatural
harmony of society of the Middle Ages is shown by Ratzinger: Die Volkswirt -
$chaft,p. 325 f. “The dignity and honour of poverty and of work, love of poverty
and of simplicity of life even in the midst of wealth, co-operation and the
levelling of distinctions between rich and poor through love and freedom (i.e.
good will) 5 s , this is the social programme. In this there is a return to the Law
of Nature, which then in these social forms works quite naturally the
greatest possible well-being, p. 323 : “The same ideas which lead a man to the
heights of union with God also answer the questions of political economy : of
the relation between rich and poor, of gain and the use of wealth, of labour and
the profit gained by labour, etc. Christianity brings to those who accept and
follow its teachings not merely the Kingdom of God, but everything else as
well : prosperity, the balance between riches and poverty, progress in work
and in dominion over nature, the freedom and equality of all in their origin
and their aim, protection against degradation and exploitation through the
brotherly spirit, and in the consciousness that all are the sons of the one
Father in Heaven. 55 This, however, can only be realized with the aid of the
426 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Law of Nature, and its organic world of classes and callings. The modern
tendencies of Catholic social philosophy, which accept the idea of the inde-
pendent movement of modern society, and wish to make their theories
independent of the Natural-Law doctrine of the Church, are for that very
teason clear departures from the principle. Politico-social Modernism is no
less contrary to the principle than is Modernism in the sphere of dogma and of
the philosophy of religion, and it shares the same fate. Cf, Lohy: Qtuiques iethes
sur des questions actuelles , 1908; who rightly emphasizes above all the politico-
social opposition of the Church to the modern world, and cherishes little
hope of the victory of a politico-social Modernism of this kind.
146 (P- 3°6.) On this peculiarity of the mediaeval conception of law, see
Gierke, III , 609-627, who also makes clear the great contradictions and com-
plications which this contained, and still contains. — Also von Jsfostitz-Rieneck ,
S.J. : Das Problem der Kidtur zu Stimmen aus Maria Laach ), 1889 , p. 20 :
“The existing foundation of civilization consists first of all in the whole of
material nature, and secondly it consists in the Law of Nature, the Natural
Law of Society and the Natural Law for private individuals. And only because
this basis is given and is firmly established, has the historical development of
positive law a clear origin and a sure foundation. 59 Here also is applicable that
which applies to the whole of Catholicism, />. 8 . “We follow two leaders, who
always point out the same way: sound reason and the Christian view of the
world." This can be applied only to a Law of Nature and a sound reason
of a quite definite historical stamp, namely, with the stamp of Thomism.
Cf. ibid., p. 4Q and also p. 92: “If, however, economic and spiritual progress
is so great that new economic conditions and new forms of popular education
are created, then the accepted order of society and law, or more accurately
speaking, a part of its positive-legal enactments in private and in State law,
will be no longer suitable for the situation."
14 6a (p* 3 11 *) Here also there appears the extraordinary significance of the
class idea. For the part it plays in modern Catholic social philosophy, see
Uhlhorn: Prot . u. Kath ., p. 23, in which he thus summarizes Hitze: Kapital und
Arbeit : “What is desired is the strengthening of the Church, the weakening of
the State. The idea of the State is so little operative that Hitze , for example,
does not even take into account the fact that peasants, manual workers, and
others are still primarily all citizens of the State. The State, according to his
ideas, will be displaced by the class organizations or corporations which will
then be formed, and in the State of the future, if one can even call that a
State at all, which is envisaged by Hitze, the class organizations themselves
will manage their own affairs independently through their own appointed
representatives. . . . Meanwhile, since the way is being prepared for this
desired class organization through a mass development of associations, and
these associations quite naturally are under the control of the Church, and
under the protection of St. Joseph, we can be under no illusions about what
would happen to those affairs themselves, and how they would he ordered
without the interference of the State. The aim is a Socialism controlled # by the
Church, a sacerdotal, or, to put it still more plainly, a theocratic Socialism."
At the same time, however, we ought to realize that this Socialism is not based
upon the idea of equality, but upon that of inequality, and just because it
gathers together those who are equal into groups which are different and
unequal in their demands upon life, does it need this class-group character,
as Ratzinger points out continually. Further, this system of regulating society,
in addition to the Socialistic concern for the welfare of the individual, aiso
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 4 2 7
means that each individual has to exercise a great deal of humility as a member
of his class and his group ; only thus is the spirit of competition banished, or
rather it is limited to that which is useful and morally permissible. The class
idea means a Socialism of groups which secures the means of existence, and
secures humility and renunciation at the same time; see Uhlhorn , p. g: “Look,
for instance, at the proposals which Hitze makes for the raising of labour:
factory labour is to be restricted, for certain products it would be forbidden
altogether; . . or read the work of Parvin , this genuine Catholic political
economist, Vber den Reichtum , in which the whole argument amounts practi-
cally to this, that the pursuit of business (which he regards simply as selfishness)
should be greatly restricted, while he exalts renunciation as the highest, even
if not the only, virtue. Or examine the methods proposed for remedying
social evils in the historico-political papers. Above all, production is to be
reduced. Associations are to be formed whose members will band themselves
together to buy nothing which has been made in a factory, unless it serves to
meet a real need, no piece of furniture for the house or article of clothing which
is merely meant for ornament. The* money which is saved in this way would
then be given to monastic establishments, which also help to prevent further
increase in the population.” This last point is especially important; this social
ideal presupposes the existence of a population which is quite moderate in
size, as the first necessity, if competition is to be abolished.
147 (p* 3 12 *) F° r the fundamental theory in its effect upon the individual
group, see Gierke, III, 513 /., 344, 553, 640; Althusius , 60 , 133 /., 232. The
superstructure in the family, parish, empire, Church, Feugueraj , 177, 142
Gierke: Althusius , 227, 223, 241; Cathrein , II, 313, 320. The class and corporate
organization is everywhere rather assumed than developed on the lines of
Natural Law. Gierke rightly lays stress on the fact that it is regarded as
belonging rather to Natural Law than to positive law, Althusius, 241 ; it is,
of course, actually based upon positive law through special privileges, etc.,
but that is still only the human carrying out of the Natural Law along the
lines of expediency. In the famous proposal in De reg . princ. for the establish-
ment of a kingdom or of a town the corporate organization according to class
and profession, and even the special settlement of groups which are of the
same kind is foreseen, Baumann, 74 f. Cf. also the passages in Maurenbrecher,
ppn 33 and 47, in which the corporations and classes are held to be derived in
part from nature and Providence, and in part from positive law, with at the
same time the reference to the example of the angel choirs. — For the decline
of the imperial idea, see Gierke , III, 541-344*
149 (p* 313.) See Feiigueray, 177-186; Th . Meyer, 70-141; Cathrein, II, 380-447;
von Eicken, 440-467. According to Gothein: Art. Agrargeschichte , II, Mittelalter u.
Neuzeit, in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart , I, p. 247 /.: “The marriage
legislation, in which the co-operation of Church and State can be most plainly
perceived, was immediately directed against the solidarity of the clan. It may
be described absolutely as an emancipation of the individual, and especially
of woman, a service which women have repaid a thousand times over by
their loyalty to the Church. The establishment of marriage by the Church in
the most flourishing period of the Middle Ages, which is also a time of the
highest importance for the position of women, forms the corner-stone of the
whole achievement : through it marriage according to the customs of the clan
was permanently displaced.” A further method of promoting the value of the
individual was the freedom to dispose of one’s possessions by will, a change
which certainly was in the interest of the Church, ibid., 248.
428 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
150 (p* 316.) Cf. Feugunoy, Baumann , Giake; also v. Eidetu 356-436; Gathrein ,
II, 449-678. Thus even the expressions of Aristotle which arc meant in a
political sense about the social nature of human reason, are understood by
St. Thomas solely from the social point of view as assertions about the necessary
economic supplementation of the callings within the State, which Aristotle,
for his part, with his ideal of the full citizen and the man of private means,
rejects; see Maurenbrecher , 30 and 36, w r hich is at the same time an example
of the “Aristotelianism 55 of St. Thomas. — Against the modern theories of the
State, seethe characteristic remarks by Zirkel in Ludwig, II, 419: “The Church
has its source in Heaven, and has come down to earth, not in the territory of
the State, but in the quite different sphere of the conscience. . . . The Church
is occupied with working for the salvation of men, while the State cares for
their material concerns. 5 * — For the struggle between the Empire and the
Papacy, see Hampe: Deutsche Kaiser geschkhte , 1909 . For the way in which the
Emperors were bound to observe the same ideal, and the claim simply to
have a larger share in the government of the Christian society, which then
naturally makes the imperial policy subject to that of the Pope, sec p. 19:
“But do the principles of a Christian ethical doctrine, to the extent in which
they were exercised by Heinrich III, still harmonize with the requirements of
a successful statesmanship? 55
lw (p. 3*7.) Thus the doctrine of property is treated quite independently
and incidentally, as a question of Natural Law, without any connection with
the doctrine of the division of labour and the differentiation of callings, where
the questions of the communism of the Primitive State and of the right of
property in the fallen State are discussed ( Maurenbrecher , Instinctively,
however, there must have been some feeling that there is a connection between
these theories, since St. Thomas teaches that the formation of property
developed out of the original customs of communism along the lines of Natural
Law quite inevitably, and he teaches the same about the division of labour.
Also the theory of the Natural Law of property, a feature new to the mediaeval
Church and connected with the ideas of Aristotle {Maurenbrecher, p. 104 /.),
is undoubtedly connected with the new value given to work, and to the
different callings, which indeed St. Thomas supposes that he also derives from
Aristotle. See also M., p. no .
1S5 (p* 3 1 9-) Illustrations of all this in Maurenbrecher , who, however, does not
examine into the reasons why St. Thomas gives the town so much higher a
position than the country. — It is always a striking fact that the mediaeval
social doctrine of the theologians always ignores feudalism. It is only the
Romantic-anti-revolutionary doctrine of the “Restauration 55 which conics
back to it ; see L. von Haller and De Bonald. Even then, however, it has not to-day
penetrated thence into the real Catholic social doctrine, which gives the
preference to democratic, peasant-agrarian, and bourgeois middle-class ideals.
154 (p. 320.) On this point see especially Ratzkiger's Volkswiilschqft , in its
historical and systematic sections. On the pretimn justum in St. Thomas, see
Brentano; Ethik und Volkswirtschaft in der Geschkhte , 1901 , p. 55/. ; according to
this St. Thomas made the permitted profits arising out of trade likewise
dependent upon the degree of the necessities involved in membership of a
certain class, and the subjective conditions of the formation of prices retained
at least a restricted influence upon the objective pretium justum; thus here also
there are concessions to that which cannot be avoided in actual practice. —
The following work goes into the subject in closer detail : F. X. Funk: Ueber die
okonomischen Anschauungen der mittelalierlichen Theologie , Z-f* ges, Staatswissenschqft ,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 429
25, Jahrg.f 1864 . F \ stresses the defectiveness, the incidental character, the
limitations due to the period, and the specifically theological character of
the expressions of St. Thomas, suitable for a confessor dealing with souls,
and deals more fully with Antonio of Florence and Bernardino of Siena, but
otherwise he does give the essentials about St. Thomas. He stresses the point
that the knowledge of the productive nature of capital is probably present in
his writings, and that in the question of the taking of interest this is expressed,
thus that here also there is already in St. Thomas a definite move towards
that which is actually necessary in practice, but that juridical authorities and
Aristotelian theories prevented him from working through and finding a
solution for the difficulties which this raised. He is also affected by the com-
mands against usury in the Primitive Church and the supposed commands
against it in the Bible'. But he is on the way to make a distinction between
usury and interest, or at least to understand it; only, since the Aristotelian
theory, together with the positive law, forces him to it, he forms his own
doctrine forbidding usury and interest (thus once more restricting this view),
yet not without limiting clauses for- the latter in the lucrum cessans , to which
were added later the damnum emergens and the penculum sortis . — In similar vein
is the book by C. Jourdain : Les commencements de V economic politique dans les ecoles
du moyen age , Memoves de Vinstitut national de France , Academic des inscriptions et
belles letties , VoL 28, 1854. J. sees in all this certainly only a very elementary
way of thinking on economic matteis derived from Aristotle, after previous
complete indifference to economic matters as a whole: “Qpelques notions sur
la monnaie, des maximes severes en mature de pret, d’injustes preventions
contre le commerce temper ees par les sentiments poui ses avantages sociaux”
(p. 24) , and fails to see in all this the expression of a mind— however imperfec tly
— acting genuinely and independently under the inspiration of the Christian
spirit, in harmony with the fundamental principles of Christian thought.
This spirit is clearly lecognized and treated in detail based on St. Thomas
by Ashley: Englische Wirtschaftsgeschichte (translated into German by Oppenheim ),
/, i8g6, pp . 120-167; this writer points out very pertinently that these ideas
were closely connected with the actual economic conditions, that is, with the
personal relation between consumers and producers which existed almost
everywhere, and the undeveloped condition of trade and finance; the latter
at a stage of higher development, in spite of all the material advantages which
it brings with it, is still full of moral dangers. This, in fact, is the very compre-
hensible fundamental and distinctive idea of Christian “economics , when,
as in the case of St. Thomas, they are confronted with a life in which com-
mercial intercourse is already a very complicated matter. The necessity for
meeting the needs of life in a satisfactory way, and yet the need of avoiding
the dangers of an economic egoism which comes to regard itself as its only
end, is the general idea behind the whole scheme, and it seems to him that
the mediaeval town provided the answer to this problem, at the stage of
development which it had then attained. Of course it did not stay there, and
out of the life of the town there has developed the modern administration of
the State and modern Capitalism; this is why modern Catholic thinkers on
economic questions turn more to the rural regions, and so far as the town is
concerned try to restore some of the old corporations and associations. In
other ways the Catholic ideal is not nearly so agrarian as the Lutheran con-
servative, This shows that Catholicism has a far larger world outlook, and also
it is evident that the fact that the theories of St. Thomas were, to such a large
extent, moulded by town-life, has also had an abiding influence upon
430 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Catholicism. — The article Tk. v. A ., by F. Waltker , in 77 . IV. St.* 9 gives a very
complete account, although much of it is drawn from Mawenbrecker. See also
the brief account of St. Thomas, which studies his Patristic presuppositions,
by 0 . Schilling; Reichlum und Eigenlum in der ethisck-rechtUchen Liter atur y 1908.
This book, which contains a wealth of quotations, entirely confirms throughout
the account which I have given of Early Catholicism in the fust section of
this work.
iS4a (p. 321.) Cf. with this the argument for the reintroduction of monasti-
cism by ZyrkeU Ludwig , II , 164.fr. “Monasticism is an idea which in isolated
individuals developed in a higher degree attains a power through which they
are able to overcome all the inclinations and impulses of human nature. This
is the reason for the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. . . . Humanity
needs a public manifestation of this way of life, in order to be reminded what
can be done in the moral realm, and that the strongest passions are not
invincible if they are treated with firm determination to overcome them.
Within the State institutions of this kind are all the more desirable because
all the other classes of men are so distracted, and taken up with their own
occupations and duties, that it is good to have one class of men set apart to
offer thanksgiving and adoration to God on behalf of the rest. 5 ’
156 (p. 3212 ) Here cf. the very characteristic expression of opinion about the
communism of the primitive community: Contra Gent ., 133; “Primus quidem
modus, scil. quod de pretio possessionum venditarum omnes communitcr
vivant, sufficiens est, non tamen ad longum tempus. El ideo Apostoli hunc
modum vivendi fidelibus in Jerusalem instituebant, quia praevidebant per
Spiritum S., quod non diu in Jerusalem simul commorari deberent, . . .
Unde non fuit necessarium nisi ad modicum tempus fidelibus providers et
propter hoc transeuntes ad gentes, in quibus firmanda et perduratura crat
Ecclesia, hunc modum vivendi non leguntur instituisse.” Afaurenbrecher also
notes other passages which are similar to this o ne, ioq . This is a fundamental
point of view ; see below on the opposition to the teaching of the sects.
160 (p- 327.) Cf. E. Meyer: Die Sklaverei im Alter turn, p. 39; Max Weber:
Agrargeschichte {Alter turn), p. 17 4 f., however, rejects this conception, and looks
solely at the special conditions out of which tire mediaeval town arose, which
was established not for military ends but for economic purposes, under circum-
stances which made it necessary to aim at the furtherance of free labour alone.
He points out also that the emphasis of the Church upon peace was also
connected with this non-military-economic nature of the industrial town.
Here it must certainly be admitted that the adjustment between the different
classes of the unfree and the dependent, as well as the economic and legal
growth of independence among the unfree and the half-free, was really based
upon the transformation of the ownership of land from the single estate under
the lord of the manor into a system of holdings for which rent was paid, and
that also the handing over of dependents to the town where they could pay
rent out of what they earned was one of the main causes of the rise of the
towns. In spite of this, however, we can also take it for granted that Christian
thought and the Christian Church also influenced this situation, and that in
the town especially the realization of the idea of liberty was connected with
the religious life of the towns. Maurer; Gesch . d. Fronhofe, 17 , 80-93, attributes the
softening influence to “custom”, and says, p . 90; “The more that the
position of the serfs improved the better it was for the unfree”, but he gives
no illustrations. In any case, the Church protected the marriage of the unfree
and procured them the human rights of family life, and this naturally meant
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 43 1
a loosening of servile ties. Maurenbrecher , 82; Longer: Sklaverei in Emopa tiahrend
der letzten Jahrhunderte des Mittelalters , Bautzener Gymnasialprogramm, 1891,
examines the subject in detail, and from the very outset this writer claims that
the modification of slavery among the Germanic States was due to theinfluence
of Roman Law and of Christianity, and also in the later developments in the
direction of greater humanity in the treatment of slaves he believes that the
influence of the Church was considerable. Further, actual slavery must be
distinguished from the condition of those who were serfs, or free villeins
(Harigenwesen ) . Although the latter class, to a great extent, developed into
freemen, who undertook free labour, slavery and the slave trade continued
throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, and in principle it was never
rejected by the Church. All the statements of theologians who claim that
Christianity in the mediaeval period at least did away with slavery are based
either upon crass ignorance or mendacious apologetics. Almost the very
opposite is the truth. These slaves were usually non-Christians, and had been
gained either in war or through trade ; often, however, whole Christian towns,
when they were captured by the enemy, were enslaved. In Spain slavery lasted
until the eighteenth century, and thence was simply transferred to America.
The modification of slavery in that land only consisted m substituting negro
slaves for the natives of the country, to which people were accustomed in
Spain and Southern Europe. Thus the modern negro slavery of America was
directly connected with the Middle Ages, and, as long as it existed, it was
justified by the same theological arguments. Where it ceased in Europe, this
was due to political and economic conditions, never to its condemnation by
the Church. Indeed, in Southern Europe, towards the close of the Middle
Ages slavery absolutely increased, and the Church was not merely implicated
in the possession of slaves, but it also inflicted the penalty of enslavement for
all kinds of offences. The opinion above expressed refers only to serfs who
became free or very nearly so. To what an extent matters of this kind are
dependent upon economic developments, and how, before the growth of
modern individualism, the Church could and would only have a relative
influence upon this question, is shown by the fact that with the reversion to
a natural economy after the sixteenth century in Germany there was again
an increase in serfdom.
163 (p- 33°*) The only Church History which gives a connected account of
these problems is that of Karl Muller , 1 , 1892, II, i, 1902 , especially cf. I, soy and
II, 89 ff. Muller sees in these sect-movements the penetration of monasticism
and its ideals into the life of the laity, which begins in the thirteenth century and
expresses itself in two ways : (a) as a violent form of Christian Socialism,
and (b) as a patient, and often persecuted, community, living a life of detach-
ment from the world. <c In both tendencies the ascetic ideas and energies of
the mediaeval Church force their way into the world of lay folk” (II, 86).
At the same time he lays stress on the connection with the idea of the absolute
Law of Nature, as this had been taught by the theologians of the fourth
century. This argument does not meet the whole of the case, however, and
occasionally the connection is the very reverse; monasticism represents the
ecclesiastical aspect of tendencies which in themselves belong to a quite
different sociological type than that of the Church, and which find their pure
expression in the sects. The main problem is to find the connection between
this world of thought and the Gospel itself, to which it always appeals, and
whence it most certainly proceeds. Then there comes the question of the
relation between the sect-type and the Church-type in general, as well as of
432 THE SOGIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
their common relation to the Gospel, whence both pioceed. Fiom the outset
Muller, like most theologians, regards the Church-type as the normal type,
and the sect-type as a secondaiy phenomenon, like monasticism and asceticism,
out of the popularizing of which it is supposed to arise. I believe that here
a specifically sociological inquiry into the inner structure of the conditions
out of which both forms of fellowship arose would place a different construc-
tion upon the matter.— A connected account fiom the opposite standpoint
given by L. Keller : Die Reformation und die alter en Refotmparieicn , 1875. Here the
sect is xegarded as the normal type, and eveiy where, sometimes in rather a
forced way, it is attributed to the Waldcnsians; while the latter arc connected
directly, through a very ancient tradition, with the Primitive Church. Because
the sect-type is the normal, the nature of the sects is not interpreted in the
light of the Church-type and of their common basis in the Gospel. Rather the
Church-type is presented as the distortion ofpuie Christianity, and is reproached
for its characteristics, while the toleration and practical ethics of the sects are
emphasized ; the lack of education among the sects is partly disputed, and the
writer tries to prove how many sectarians have been cultivated people, and
partly it is excused, owing to the wretched conditions under which many
were forced to live, owing to the w r ay in which they w ? eic persecuted. One
great merit of this book is the emphasis upon the sect-type, but the actual
description of the sects does not single out its salient characteristics; the
whole description aims at a modern, tolerant, and ethically serious humani-
tarian Christianity, emphasizes only the voluntary and subjective position,
but ignores wholly the literal law^ of the Scriptures, the radical Law of Nature,
the tendencies to develop into fanaticism and Chiliasm, and thus also means
that the illiteracy of the sects is regarded from an entirely wrong point of
view; it is an inherent part of their nature. — The brief allusions to the subject
in Luthardi: Gesch . der Ethik , /, 527-555 are entirely valueless ; Ziegler, who finds
no new ideas in the mediaeval ethic in general, ignores this movement entirely.
The histories of dogma also give very meagre accounts ; there are only a few
casual observations in Seeberg; DogmengescL , 71 , i6&~i6g. Loserth : Geschichte
d . spdteren Mittelalters , igoo, has practically next to nothing on the subject,
although he is supposed to be describing the dissolution of the “religious
civilization” ! — An informative summary of one part of the history of the
sect-movement is given by Lechler: J* u. Wlklif und die Vor geschichte der Reforma-
tion , 1873. Here, however, everything is regarded from the point of view of
the Reformation, and the difference between the Scriptural emphasis of the
sects on the Law of God and of Nature, and the Lutheran Biblicism of the
comfort of grace and of Christ-mysticism is not emphasized ; in reality, however,
this difference is fundamental, as will be explained later on, and it constitutes
the point at which the religious development of the Reformation differs from
the sect-type.
163a (p. 333*) For this important distinction in the conception of asceticism
which is capable of many interpretations and is very far-reaching, seq, above,
pp, waff. The asceticism of the Primitive Christian Church with its indifference
to the world, and the ecclesiastical asceticism of late antiquity with its emphasis
upon mortification, ought always to be differentiated. In Protestantism we shall
see a new third conception of asceticism. In Zockler's book on asceticism there
are, unfortunately, few distinctions of this kind, and the great theme is treated
in a very colourless way. But the usual Protestant polemic against asceticism
also overlooks these distinctions, even when it is represented by men of jthe
school of historical thought represented by von Eicken or Viktor Hehu
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 433
164 (P* 333*) Tor the following section I owe some of the most decisive
elements in my point of view to the very instructive study of Max Weber:
Kitchen und Sekten in Pfordamerika, Christl, Welt , 1906 , pp. 998 ff., 577 jf.; also see
Scheel: Individualismus und Gemeinschqftsleben in der Auseinandersetzung Luthers mit
Karlstadt , 1924/29, Zeiischrift fur Theol. u. Kirche, 190J, and my work, Religion
und Kirche , Preuss, Jahrb ., 1899. As everywhere, so here also, in the background
of my researches there is SimmePs conception of sociology as the science of the
formal structural relations between the different forms of group-life. — Essen-
tially the same point of view of the nature of the sects is taken by Kawerau in the
article Sekienwesen in Deutschland , Protest. Real-Encyklop.i ed. Hauck . Here the
distinction is made between the sect with its voluntary basis of membership
and its emphasis upon ethical strictness as the proof of the reality of its faith,
and the Church, with its emphasis upon its institutional character ; at the same
time the writer admits that the Church alone is a religion of the people and
of civilization, while the sect represents a conventicle-type of religion coupled
with ethical radicalism. The difference is, however, not examined in its
ultimate reasons. But the sects of mgdem times, which have grown up within
Protestantism, are also to a great extent very different from those of the Middle
Ages, since the former, owing to the theological character of Protestantism in
general, give more scope for doctrinal differences, and measure the ethical
standard less by the Natural Law and the Divine Christian Law of the Sermon
on the Mount than by the Protestant doctrine of the Calling. In point of fact,
both characteristics, the voluntary and individualistic nature of the member-
ship in the community on the one hand, and the radical Natural-Law Scriptural
doctrine of the Law on the other, are not, in themselves, necessarily connected.
The former is connected only with the rigid uncompromising ethical character
of the proof of the reality of personal faith, which is based upon a real appropria-
tion of salvation and on the union of all those who share this faith. That in the
mediaeval sects this ethical proof consists in the observance of the Law of
God and of the absolute Law of Nature must be explained by the fact that
in the intellectual world of the Middle Ages the conception of Law was a
fundamental constituent element, and that every new formulation always
leads anew to the Law of Jesus and of Nature. — How close a combination of
these two ideas is to the Message of Jesus can be proved by an examination
of some quite modern radical progiammes of reform. I will only remind the
reader of the two books : Paroles d’un Grey ant, by Lammennais , and Sie Miissen ,
by the socialistic pastor Kutter (1904). Here, Christian communism, the
universal law of reason, and the rejection of all the ethical compromises of
the Church, is clearly, in both cases, the decisive characteristic. If the Protestant
sects are remote from communism and the absolute Law of Nature, the reason
lies in this, that their emphasis on the centrality of the teaching of the Scriptures
is based on the thought and outlook of Paul and not on the Message of Jesus,
and that, therefore, in their acceptance of Paulinism they also have adopted
his acquiescence in the secular order and its institutions. This does not mean,
however, that they reject the ethical, anti-ecclesiastical radicalism, but they
exercise it merely in the form of the ethic of the Calling. For the same reason
the idea of the absolute radical-communistic Natural Law is alien to them ;
their idea of Natural Law, so far as they develop this idea at all, cpntains
within itself the idea of the freedom of individualism, but not the equality of
communism. — This contrast which has just been described has also been
noted from a rather different point of view by Ragaz in his excellent work.
Das Evangelium und der sozide K 'amp f der Gegenwart , 1906. See especially p. 20 /:
VOL. 1 EE
434 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
“It seems to me that the contradictory ideas which have here come to light
may have been derived from one great antinomy, which runs right through
the whole history of Christianity, and is indeed even oldei than Christianity
itself. I would like to describe this contrast as that which exists between the
quiescent and the progressive form of religion. In other words, it might be
described as the difference between an aesthetic-ritualistic piety and an ethical-
prophetic piety. Both streams may have taken their rise in the depths of the
same mountain range, but they emerge from the mountains at different places,
their waters are differently coloured, and they have a different taste. They
arise, so far as this question is concerned, in the New Testament, but not at
the same point; the one springs out of the thought of Paul and of John, and
the other out of the Synoptic Gospels.” Later on R . identifies the former
tendency with the “Church”, quite definitely, while, although he does not
absolutely identify the latter with the “sect”, he points to St. Francis, the
Anabaptists, the development of Calvinism — that is, he actually is referring to
the sect. To my satisfaction R. supports his argument by appealing to my
presentation of Protestantism m the Kultw\ dei Gegenwai /, 7, and draws con-
clusions from that which I stated in that work, which were not so clear to
me at that time as they arc now. Only, the reason why the churches lower the
standard of the Gospel is not so much a direct Quietism, or a quiescent attitude
towards the life of the world, as it is the tendency to desiie to dominate the
nations and to maintain a unity of civilization, just as, on the other hand, the
difficulty of carrying out those standards in practice leads to the effort to
realize them within the narrower limits of small groups of a voluntary kind or
to sects, to whom previously a universal society could only be conceived in
the terms of Chiliasm, and therefore of violence. — Here, as in other places,
the whole of this inquiry would have gained greatly if it had been possible to
make some comparisons with the history of the Russian Church, and the
Russian civilization and culture, if these matters were better known than
they are. Here I can only indicate the articles by Kattenbusch; Die Kirche in
Russland in the ChristL Welt , igo8 } especially pp. 730 ff., and also Grass: Die
russischen Sekten , Vol. 7, 1907, and the article by the same writer, Die Bedeutung
der russischen Sektenkunde fur die Beurteilung von russischer Religiositdt und Kultur ,
in Z* f* Religion und Geisteskultur , published by Steinmann , igoS , pp . 161 ff , —
Characteristic and instructive from the standpoint of Lutheran churchmanship
on the sects is Gottschick: Ethik , igoj y pp . 232 ff. : “Essentially the sect consists in
this, that it is the empirical representation of a community of nothing but
awakened Christians, living apart from the world. This, at least, is its intention.
Therefore it leads to a narrowing of Christian fellowship, which is contrary
to the ideal of Christianity, for it not only denies that the Christian develop-
ment has many stages, but it sets up special or even erroneous standaids of the
necessary characteristics of the Christian community; it further denies the
universal calling of Christendom, i.e. that of bringing in the Kingdom of
God through the development of history as the supreme force over the life
of the world. For it regards the State, science, law, and art only as the “V^orld”
in the bad sense, and in the tense spirit of Chiliasm it renounces the effort to
overcome the world through spiritual labour. In contrast with this idea, the
characteristic sign, by which a Christian fellowship can prove that it is a
“church”, is this, that in the universal and historical spirit, on the one hand,
it opens the door also to those who are learning to be Christians and offers
a home to all Christian individualities, and thus it treats seriously the idea
that the Christian community as a whole must precede tlxe individual, and,
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 435
on the other hand, that it organizes its legal system not in order to represent
the community of the faithful, but rather as a system of the means for the
cultivation and expansion of Christianity, and thus takes up the task of trying
to permeate the spheres of life which God has ordained with the Christian
spirit. In the exercise of this spirit the Church has gradually developed into
the form of a church of the people or a national Church, that is, it has adopted
a form by means of which the Church sets before herself the task of the educa-
tion of the nations as a whole, and thus the individual does not enter into
the Church by means of a voluntary decision, but rather he is born into it,
by entering into the natural life of the nation which is under the educative
influence of the Church. . . , These effective advantages compensate for the
disadvantage, which is unavoidable, that in a Church which is thus ordered,
elements of the ‘world 5 , in the bad sense of the word, penetrate into its life
to a comparatively greater extent than into a sect. Not only on account of
this comprehensiveness, but, above all, because of this its universal and historical
ideal the great bodies of Catholic and Protestant churches claim to bear the
name of ‘Church 5 . 55 With this description before us it is evident that the
sect- type corresponds to the Synoptic message of Jesus, which is directed
towards the future, gathers resolute adherents and pays as little attention to
the “world 55 as possible, whereas the Church-type corresponds to the mis-
sionary faith of the Apostles and especially of Paul, which looks back to a
religious possession of redemption, and to some extent accepts the “world 55 .
The difference between Jesus and Paul, expressed by Wrede (. Paulus , /905,
with which I do not entirely agree, by the way), is also, from this point of
view, the origin of different ideals and motives, which, consciously or uncon-
sciously, remain separate all down the course of the history of Christianity.
As the Scriptural argument for the superiority of the Church-type all that
Gottschick can suggest is “the fact that in the New Testament the Christian
character of the family goes beyond that of its individual members (1 Cor. mi. 14)
and that Christ as well as Paul directs his efforts (i.e. his hope) towards the
hope of the conversion of Israel as a nation 55 . ( 0 . 233.) The former point is
certainly important, but it belongs to Paulinism, and characteristically on the
question of Infant Baptism the Church-type and the sect-type have either
separated or made their compromises. The second idea is, indeed, not conceived
as connected with the Church, but as an eschatological Act of God.
165a (p* 34°-) On account of their “asceticism 55 a large group of theologians
is in the habit of describing the sects as a specifically Catholic phenomenon,
although in so doing they are ignoring the central point of Catholicism — the
hierarchy, the priesthood, the sacraments, and the objective nature of Grace.
This takes place among those students who, in the school of Ritschl, have
learned to regard the asceticism which is hostile to the world, “the monastic
ideal of perfection 55 , as the very essence of Catholicism, and who think that
Catholicism was simply illogical and hindered by external difficulties from
carrying out this ideal for all, whereas the sects do carry it out for all their
members. With these theologians this idea is closely connected with their
conception of the New Testament and of Protestantism ; they regard the New
Testament, namely, from its view of the Kingdom of God, as an ethico-religious
unity of believers who trust in God and who overcome the world by their
brotherly love; they look upon Protestantism as the discarding of the ideal of
asceticism, and the return to a Christianity which asserts with joy the^ accep-
tance of the world, and of the duty of serving God within one’s^ calling, by
which it is related with the modern world. Thus Brieger (in his book Die
436 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Reformation , in Ull stein's Weltgeschichte , />. igS) says, speaking of the mediaeval
sects: “Only a very small minority broke away, possibly because the warmth
of their religious feeling came up against cold decrees, their moial seriousness
was hurt, and they longed for the Christian community of the apostolic
period, from which the Papal Chinch with its worldly aims was as different
as chalk from cheese. But even these renegades remained in agreement with
the Church in their fundamental religious views. The sects of the Middle Ages,
however many divisions they may represent, still bear without exception the
stamp of the Catholicism of their day ; indeed, they are its creation. . . . Only
upon this soil could they grow at all.” Thus Moller-Kawerau: A*. 6 '., ///, con-
siders that the Anabaptists and the sects of the Middle Ages weie the product
of Catholicism because of their ascetic and legalistic tendencies. Thus Ritschl ,
in particular declared that the second gieat sect-movement of Protestantism,
Pietism, was due to the incursion of alien Catholic standards of life. This
whole argument, however, is fundamentally false. So far as Catholicism is
concerned, I believe that in the previous pages I have shown that the
characteristic feature of Catholicism is this : the union of asceticism and the
life of the world, and the possibility of combining both these elements in the
graduated structure of the Church, as the organ of grace. That the roots of
asceticism were already present in the New Testament is to-day generally
recognized as a fact which is closely connected with the recognition of the
eschatological character of the New Testament. These ideas gave Luther
trouble enough, and on this point Brieger gives it as his opinion that Luther
did not read the New Testament in the historical sense (i.e. that he did not
interpret it in the sense of liberty and acceptance of the world), but that he
made the mistake of interpreting it literally ! All this, however, shows that in
the sect-movements of the Middle Ages, of the Reformation, of the Anabaptists,
and of the Pietists, there were operating Scriptural, not Catholic elements,
which alongside of the other elements of the New Testament which tended in the
direction of the Church, the objective character of grace and the conservative
adaptation to the world, have their own tendency and their own history.
This is the sect-type, which everywhere accompanies the Church-type as a
complementary movement, and which everywhere breaks through to the
extent in which the main emphasis was laid upon the Synoptic Gospels and the
“enthusiastic” sections of the New Testament. In this line of argument, too,
the many-sidedness of the word “asceticism” is overlooked, to which allusion
has already been made.
167a (p- 352.) See Vossler : Die gottliche Komodie , If 28 ff. From Vossler's work,
which particularly in this volume is most original in treatment, we gain a very
living impression of the extraordinary variety of the attitude of the leading
nations towards the religious system of life of the Middle Ages. The seigniorial-
Territorial-Church development was supported mainly by the German
monarchy and Empire as well as by England; see Hauck and Bohmer. The
great classical system of the central period of the Middle Ages was of French
origin ; hence the close connection between the country of France and mediaeval
thought. Provence and Italy, apart from clerical circles, from the days of
Gregory the Great fell into a state of increasing religious indifference, and
they cultivated in a remarkable manner the remains of ancient Humanism.
It was not until the twelfth century that the great religious period in Italy —
which coincided with the development of town-life — began, which lasted till
the fifteenth century. During this epoch, however, out of these conditions, the
difference between the Church- and the sect-type was developed, and it was
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 437
precisely these contrasts which gave so much vitality to this period and so
much significance. That there is a connection between the sect-movement in
the North and that in the South is undoubtedly the case, but at present the
evidence for this is insufficient.
176 (p. 359.) Here Wyclif shares the accepted scholastic ideas of the Law
of Nature and of God ; see Lechler , /, 467, and especially the passage from the
rivili dominio : “de quanto aliqua lex ducit propinquius ad conformitatem legis
naturae, est ista perfection Sed lex Christi patiendi injurias propinquius ducit
ad statum naturae quam civilis. Ergo ista cum suis regulis est lege civili
perfectior” ; this is the ancient distinction between the absolute and relative
Law of Nature, whereby the former belongs to the Primitive State. When
Lechler suggests that the later passage from De veiitate scripturae “in tan turn
quod si lex aliqua dicit caritatem aut virtutem aliquam, ipsa adeo est lex
Christi 53 means that the Natural Law is placed below the Christian Law, he
is overlooking the fundamental identity between the absolute Law of Nature
and the Christian Law of God. Wyclif is only asserting the absolute Law of
Nature against the relative or civil law. The very fact that the Bible and
Christianity are everywhere designated the “Law of God 53 by Wyclif shows
that his whole intellectual outlook was coloured by the conceptions of the
Law of God and of Nature {Lechler , I, 473). Also the whole endeavour to set
up the Bible as the sole authority and the source of the Divine Law means the
assertion of the absolute and pure law against the relative Natural Law of the
accepted order of Society and the compromises of the Church. Only gradually
there developed out of this ideal of the Bible as the sole authority a dogmatic
criticism of purely theological doctrines as well ; this is an important distinction
between this doctrine and the teaching of Luther ; see De civili dominio : “Pure
per observantiam legis Christi sine commixtione traditionis humanae crevit
ecclesia celerrime, et post commixtionem fuit continue diminuta” {Lechler,
I, 474 ). Also in a similar vein: “Lex humana est mixta multa nequitia, ut
patet de regulis civilibus, ex quibus pullulant multa mala ; lex autem evangelica
est immaculata” {Lechler, I, 475). Thus the Bible is the “carta a Deo scripta
et nobis donata, per quam vindicabismus regnum Dei 53 {476). It is the absolute
Christian Law of Nature : the clergy should “uti pro suo regimine lege evangelica
impermixte 53 or “Utilius et undique expeditius foret sibi (ecclesiae) regulari
pure lege scripturae, quam quod traditiones humanae sunt sic commixtae cum
veritatibus evangelicis ut sunt modo” (477). Hence “Lex Christi est medulla
Iegum ecclesiae 35 . “Omnis lex utilis sanctae matri ecclesiae dicitur explicite
et implicite in scriptura.” This, however, is also the Law of Nature in the
whole life of Society : “Totum corpus juris humani debet inniti legi evangelicae
tanquam regulae essentialiter divinae.” The whole of Society ought to be and
could be reformed according to the Law of Christ, and indeed solely from
this point of view. This, however, cannot take place until the Church has been
reformed; see c. 44 v. Book I, De dominio civili. To Wyclif the official theologian
was “JDoctor traditionis humanae et mixtim theologus 5 5 ( Lechler , 1, 477), in which
he was undoubtedly right. “Lex autem Christiana debet esse solum lex Domini
et immaculate convertens animas (to a Scriptural strictness and love) et per
consequens recusari debet a cunctis fidelibus propter commixtionem cujus-
cumque attomi Antichristi” {Lechler, I, 478). Lechler sees in this the Scriptural
principles of the Reformation ; such a point of view is, however, only possible
where the mediaeval world of sociological ideas, with its emphasis upon
Natural Law, is ignored ; Buddensieg thinks of this still less. And yet this is the
real key to the whole question ! In the doctrine of the Reformers which starts
438 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
from the Pauline religion of grace the Scriptures contain the message of the
grace of God and are the very opposite of a Lex Christi. It is precisely for that
reason that the Reformers also have no feeling for the legal conception of the
radicalism of the Early Church and for the reform of the secular order on
these lines. This is its fundamental difference from the Wyelif movement,
coupled with the retention of the Church-type.
177 (p* 359*) The question why Wyelif did not deduce the radical conse-
quences of this idea is very important for his doctrine. See bag simply says ;
“Naturally this does not mean(?) that the righteous arc directly to take to
themselves the possessions which have been unjustly seized by others. Rather
the positive duties of iife( !) are contained in the Gospel law” ip. 168). Passages
which might throw light upon this dark saying aie not indicated. The chief
work, De civili dominio (now published in four volumes by Poole, i #%/.), gives
clear statements on the whole subject. Here first of all the jus divinum or
evangelicum is stated to be the one absolute law which ensures to the righteous
and the elect possessions in goods and in power as the gift of God, but it also
lays upon the elect soul the obligation to use these possessions in the loving
service of the whole, that is, in the communism of love. Only in this sense
can we understand WycliPs central expression omnia bona comrmmia for the
Primitive State and the state of redemption; in the spirituality of love and in
the possession of the highest mystical good each special possession is common
to all, in spite of all the actual differences in possessions effected by the grace
of predestination ; “dominium enim naturale propter sui spiritualitatem aliud
non excludit” (/, 126). This is not meant at ail in the sense of Stoic-rationalist
individualism, but in the sense of a common spirit, which, in the service of the
radical communism of love, uses all callings and offices, all possessions and
all power for the good of the Christian Society ; otherwise the classified social
system still remains as before: the “vulgares”, “saeculares domini” and the
“sacerdotes”. Along with the doctrine of predestination there is asserted as a
fundamental idea the difference in callings, ministeria et officio ( Lechler , /, 551),
only they are placed unconditionally at the service of love, and this demand
does not apply merely to one special class, that of monasticism ( Lechler , 1,
582 ff.), but to all Christians everywhere; of them all the Franciscan Ideal
holds good: “Pure naturaliter vel evangelice dominantes perfectissime dicunt
atque verissime cum Scriptura, quod omnia bona mundi sunt singulorum
nostri ordinis et tamen nihil habemus, civiliter in proprio et sic intelligil
locutiones venerabilis ordinis fratrum minorum, qui sunt quasi nihil habentes
secundum civilem solicitudinem et tamen omnia possidentes” (/, rsg)* Thus
the differences are emphasized as Divine gifts, and yet in love they are no
longer existent, even the differences between master and slave* “Quilibct
christianus debet reciproce alteri ministrare, ergo et esse reciproce servus et
dominus” (J, 75) ; and it is “regula indispensabilis christianae religionis, qua
scimus quemeunque christianum, inquantum est donis Dei fertilior, in lantuxn
debet esse aliis membris Christi servitute subjectior et per consequens magis
servus” (/, 77). Apart from the slavery introduced by sin, this applies both to
the Primitive State and also to the state of redemption : “Jus divinum est
jus a solo deo institutum, per Christum verbo et opere explanatum ut lex
evangelica” (/, 125), and this “jus divinum creatum est jus divinitus inspira-
tum ; jus humanum [consisting in jus canonicum and jus civile ] est occasione
peccatx adinventum”. In itself it is the same point of view as in St. Thomas,
But this human law is here rated at a much lower value than in the social
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 4
removed from Christian Society, especially in the realm of Canon Law, wh:
he regards as something quite artificial, and also from that of civil law, wb
it is granted only a very limited significance: “Ex istis incidenter pa
divisio inter dominium naturale vel evangelicum et civile. Dominium quid
naturale est dominium divinitus institutum in primo titulo justitiae fundatu
quotlibet divitcs ex aequo compatiens, sed alienationem dominantis serv;
justitia non permit tens. Dominium autem civile est dominium occasione pecc
hominibus institutum, incommunicabile singulis et ex aequo multis domii
sed abdicabile servata justitia* 5 (p. 126 /.), this means, the Divine Lawappoi
to the righteous and elect soul a possession which cannot be taken a^
from him without injustice, which it is his duty to use absolutely in the serv
of love. On the other hand, the human law of the fallen State only secures
the individual a possession which is secured through compulsion, which oi
aids a few, and is not meant for the whole, which, precisely because t
element of love is lacking, can be used for the whole in an external way throu
selling, for instance, and which can be taken away from him. This hum
law, however, means the removal or denial of love, and it is only justified
the extent in which it stems the tide of disorder and robbery, and reta
within itself a relic of the Natural Law: “Unde supposito lapsu et cecit
proclivi bonis sensibilibus praecipue innitendi, necesse fuit leges et ordinatio:
humanas statuere, ne quilibet lapsus de bonis furtim caperet, quantumc
voluntas indebite inclinaret” (/, 128). “Sequitur ergo, quod jus civile
humanum, ut sapit justitiam, est jus ordinans idoneum ad custodiam te
poralium pro ulilitate rei publicae, ad refrenandum voluntates ipsam inju
dirrumpere et ad sagaciter ministrandum ilia in necessitate temporal
(/, I2g). This is the old idea of the relative Natural Law of the existing on
as thefrenum et remedium peccati. Wyclif, however, has no great opinion of t
law; the consensus populi which determines it is unjust, “nisi praesuppos
ratione, scil. quod persona dominans sit a Deo accepta ad illud officium; et ]
idem nulla principia juris civilis de successione hereditaria vel commutatk
mutua terrenorum est justa nisi de quanto est legis naturae particula 55 (/, 130)
All this shows that the scholastic intellectual apparatus of the Lex Nati
has been to a great extent set aside In favour of the absolute Natural La
but in this the idea of predestination has made the inequalities so firr
established that it is able to work in a conservative direction, so long a
special class can regard its dominium as just in essence, and administe:
according to the Will of God. Wyclif assumes this, with evident English s
satisfaction, of the secular classes (or estates) ; he only denies it for the clerj
therefore the revolutionary tendency is only directed against this class. In
background, however, there is the idea that the secular classes also ought to
tested by the Law of God, and that there ought to be a Christian ideal
Society according to the Lex evangelii ; it will not be individualistic and cc
munistic, but It will require a large measure of the voluntary communism
love. The revolutionary conclusions and the radical opposition of this wh
theory to the social philosophy of Thomism are manifest.
178 (p* 360.) This is an old Augustinian idea, which St. Thomas shared. ]
for St. Thomas the Church is the means by which, as a sacramental-hierarch
institution which imparts salvation, predestination is realized. Further, in v
of the fact that it is impossible to tell whether anyone is in a state of gr
or not, and that outwardly it is impossible to say whether in any particr
individual the potency of salvation will be actualized or not, all are pla
*und«r the compulsory regime of sacramental observance* the non-elect
440 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF TPIE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
well as the elect ; it is felt that the difference will never be discovered till after
death. This is the manner in which the doctrine of picdestination is adjusted
to the idea of the Church as an institution. It is only when this safeguard is
removed that the doctrine of predestination xcveals its tendency to destroy
the conception of the Church. See the apt observations in Gottschick: Huss*,
Luthers und £winglis Lehre von der Kuche, Z.J. Lin It. Geschi elite, 1886. pp. 352-356.
179 (p- 360.) Cf. Lechler, 1,5341 Against the danger of despair about being in
a state of grace : “Vivat ergo homo, quam plene sufBdt, conformiter leg! Dei
et habeat persevei antem voluntatem in lege ilia standi in vita, defenslone
et publicatione ; et toilitur occasio desperandi.” 435; “Qiiilibet debet exam-
mare vitam propriam, quousque non fuerit sibi conscius de mortal i peccato.
Istam ergo examinationem tractare diligentissime est necessarium cuilibet
viatori, cum quilibet, sicut debet habere spem suae sah ationis, ita debet
credere absque formidine, quod sit in gratia gratifleante.” P. 533: “Non enim
supponeret, quod sint tales [i.e. elect members of the true Church] nisi evidentia
capta ex opere, quo sequerentur dominum Jesum Christum.”
180 (P* 361.) These consequences are emphasized by Seeberg: Der Begrtffder
ckristlichen Kirche , 7 , 1885 , p. 77/.; Gottschick , p . 77, however, says, with equal
justice, that these conclusions were not actually drawn by Wyclif, but that
what he did was to urge for the reform of the Church as a whole, while allowing
priests and sacraments to remain in existence as institutional elements. The full
force of these ideas is only felt “when the certainty of being of the number of
the elect is regarded as something which is open to all. As soon as this cer-
tainty is reached, then the authority of external institutions disappears’* (/;. 363) .
In point of fact, however, Wyclif *s opinions about the priesthood are somewhat
uncertain and fluctuating, and he simply said that the sign of the elect was
the practical reality of religion in their lives. The sect-type, of course, results
from this way of thinking, but it was certainly not logically thought out.
181 (P* 363*) Gf. K. Muller: K.G . , II, 79. The starting-point here also is the
Augustinian doctrine of predestination. “For it was precisely Wyclif’s doctrine
of predestination which, both in itself and in its conclusions, was destined to
cause Huss to drift away from the teaching of the Catholic Church’ 5 ( Losertk ,
5p). Otherwise the results of the idea of predestination appear less in Huss than
in Wyclif, since Huss did not adopt the criticism of the sacraments, and he
also held far more strongly the need for the priesthood. As to St. Thomas, so
also to him, the priesthood and the Sacrament are the means by which the
fact of predestination is realized in life, to which, in view of the fact that it
cannot be established with any certainty whether any particular individual
is of the number of the elect, the believer must hold fast. On this point see the
excellent treatment of the subject by Gottschick , p. 365 , especially p . 366:
“Whereas Wyclif certainly seems to have justified elect laymen, if Christ calls
and endows them, in undertaking priestly activity in the technical sense, Huss
always assumed that there is a specific difference between the clergy and the
laity” ( p . 366). “The fellowship of the elect controlled by Christ ought to realize
the Divine Law, whose content, if we wish to sum it up in one phrase, is* £ the
Franciscan ideal of life’ ” {p. 368). “The factors in which the Church makes
itself felt, the sacraments and the sacerdotal administration, are the means by
which the aim of preaching the message of Jesus is realized” ( p . 330). “Huss was
very far from holding a subjective view of fellowship which makes everything
start from the individual ; indeed, so far as the conception of the Church as
the Body of Christ was concerned, he held that the individual is supported by
the whole” (p. 3yd). “The union of the idea of predestination with that of the"
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 441
Church did not lead Huss to depreciate the idea of the empirical Church (i.e. of
the institution), but rather to put stress on the great need to try to make the
Church conform to the Law of Christ.” Thus the three estates in the Church,
the vulgares, the saeculares domini , and the sacer dotes, ought to live according to
the Law of Christ : “It is the duty of the first class to obey the commandments
of God while doing the work which is permitted to them; the second class
ought to use in God’s service the power of force or of the sword which God
has granted them in order to carry out the Law of Christ, and therefore they
must both protect the servants of Christ and drive out the servants of the
Anti-Christ; the thiid class, however, whose members are the representatives
of Christ, ought as the soul of the Church to impart fresh life to her, through
a life of detachment from the world wholly devoted to the following of Christ
as closely as possible” ( p . 372). It is manifest that here, still more than in the
teaching of Wyclif, the Franciscan ideal of the Law of God has taken up into
itself the class organization of the world. Criticism is directed only against the
secularized hierarchy, with its wealth and its claims on the law, demanding
that these should be transformed into poor servants of Christ according to
Matt. x. Territorial churches, tended by pastors and priests according to the
spirit and example of the Apostles, are his ideal, “about the limitation of which
Huss certainly did not think any further” (p. 393), In so doing, however, it is
clear that the elements of the institutional conception have been retained in
the idea of the priesthood, the Sacrament, and the following of the Apostles.
But, on the other hand, we may reply to Gottschick that these elements have
been greatly shaken, and that the development into the sect-movement is not
far away. As soon as the official priesthood is regarded as offending against the
Law of God, and is therefore placed outside the Church of the elect ; and when,
on the other hand, the elect layman is placed outside the institution by being
excommunicated ; and further, as soon as, in both these instances, the Bible
is given into the hands of the laity as the Law of God, in order that the clear
distinction may be perceived between the mere praescitus and the praedestinatus ,
then true fellowship becomes something which is due to the understanding
by the laity of the Law of God and to their agreement about it. The problem
then is to effect the right agreement between these opinions, which ought to
lead to the development of a priesthood in line with the true succession from
the Apostles, which is also really religious and devout. This, however, means
that the institutional conception is reduced to the furthest minimum, if the
congregation has to choose its own priest from the existing succession. The
Divine Law, however, which regulates the opinion of the laity, is in no way,
as was later the “Word” in Lutheranism, the objective creator of fellowship,
which arises simply out of subjective knowledge and insight into the Law of
God. This — even although through being cast out of the Church — leads the
way to the sect-type, and in actual practice this is what happened.
186 (P* 366*) The two following writers suggest that the sect-type is due to
the influence of the Waldensians, which is, of course, quite possible : Preger:
Ueber Has Verhaltniss der Taboriten zu den Waldensiern des 14. Jahr. (Abhh. der hist .
Klasse des Mmchener Akad. d. Wiss., 1887) and Haupt: Die Sekten in Franken vor
der Reformation , 1882. Volpe: September , p. 297? agrees with these authors;
Loserth , however, in reviews which are important in their bearing on the
thought of Wyclif, Gott. Gel Anzz>, 1883 , p. 475, and ibid., 1891, pp. Hoff.,
maintains that it is still impossible to prove these influences, and says that
it is probable that the sect arose simply out of the logical consequences of the
442 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
leaching of Wyclif about the right of the elect to inquire and examine for
themselves. This is possible. It seems impossible, however, to claim that the
individualistic-communistic theories were cleaved from Wvelif. On this point
I follow if. Mullejy whose views are based also upon the work of F. von Bezold:
Zur Geschichte des Iiussitenlums (which, unfortunately, I was unable to obtain
for my own use). If these suggestions are (Direct, then the influence of the
Wyclif movement in this respect can scarcely be regarded as a tenable position.
It is not sufficient to say that Wyclif % s doctrine of the definition of the Divine
Law as the standard for the secular order also, proves this contention ; for the
conception of the Divine Law itself is different. What accounts for this I am
unable to say. I believe, that in addition to a strong admixture of Chiliast
ideas, there may be alsojoachimite ideas present as well (see Lose] tlds otherwise
very meagre sketch, G. d. spat, Mitielaltns, pp. 480 ff.). Muller suggests ancient
Slav communism ; Max Weber tells me that he thinks that this is impossible,
since this kind of communism, as “Hauskommunion”, Implied the patriarchal
clan-type of family, and is constructed quite differently. Wcbei himself attributes
this to the results of a widespread state of warfare, and the wandering life
which this caused to so many people. The comparatively detailed sketch,
based on Palacky in Kautsky: Gesch . d, 8ozialhmns y /, /, pp. i<)5~23<), suggests the
“Beghards” ; the work of R. *' Z m Vorgcschkhte des Bauernh leges,
which essentially is based upon Hojler: Geschichtsscheiber der hussithchen Bewegurtg,
1836-1866 , suggests the Beghards, Dolcinists, Italian Chiliasts, and old Slav
communistic customs, and the communism of war. With reference to the
violence which is incompatible with the whole thought of Christianity, we
should note that here the Old Testament is called in to help, alongside of the
Divine Law of the New r Testament, as indeed the Old Testament often had
to help out with the provision of a Scriptural basis for an argument for a
secular ethic, and for social ideas. This supplementary part played by the Old
Testament alongside of the New Testament, especially In questions of ethics
and of social doctrines, needs a book to itself. This point will occur again and
again in the section on Calvinism.
191 (p* 37 1 *) Instances of these democratic-communistic ideas are collected
by Kautsky in his Geschichte des Sozialismus , J, 1 ; unfortunately they are often
inaccurate, and the writer also reveals a complete lack of understanding of
the religious motives and the differences between the various groups. To him
the Christian communism of the Middle Ages is a poor example of a premature
communism, due essentially to the ideas of the early Christian “slave com-
munity” ( Lumpenproletariat ) handed down through Christian literature,
which, because it does not coincide with the stage of production which is still
the ruling element in social life, and with the tendency to “development or
evolution”, is at the same time mystical, ascetic, politically impotent and the
enemy of science, whereas the Socialism of the present day, which does fit in
with the stage of production, is at all points the very opposite ! A wealth of
material, particularly on the South German peasant movements and the
Taborites, is provided by R. Zbllner: Die Vorstufen des Bauemkrieges . for the
English peasant rising of 1381, and its Christian-communistic programme, see
Kautsky: /, 1, pp. 183-133. According to Luce: Histoire de la Jacquerie 2 y 1834,
the French Jacquerie did not contain any ideal elements of this kind. The
thought behind the German movements is illuminated by the Reformatio
Sigismmdi (ed. Bohm , 1876), which, alongside of a relatively conservative
ecclesiastical programme, still, in the interest of the slaves and the serfs, did
assert the ideas of Natural Law and Christian liberty, i.e. the ideas of equality
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 443
and of the natural holding of all things in common ( Bohm , p. 48). A summary
oi the German revolutionary-peasant movements is given by Brieger: Ref.
(Dllsteinsche W. G.),pp> 2g 4-306. Here there is everywhere evident the equation
of the revolutionary demand with the Divine and Natural Law of the Primitive
State, “‘when Adam delved and Eve span 55 , while the element of force is
justified by the example of the Old Testament. — How uncertain even other-
wise competent theologians are in this sphere is shown by Seeberg; D.S. , /, 166 ff.
In all the different places in which Seeberg speaks of the Natural Law of the
Middle Ages there is never any allusion to its varied elements, nor to the fact
of the distinction between the absolute and the relative Natural Law, and,
in particular, the deep inward necessity for the acceptance of this idea is not
in the least understood.
193 (P* 375*) That it was precisely the Avignon Papacy which completed the
process of the centralization of the Church, and that this was expressed chiefly
in the ecclesiastical system of finance, is rightly emphasized by K. Muller:
Rultur de ? Gegenwart , /, 21 1, and by Haller: Papsttum und Kirchenreform ,
The latter adds that this fiscal policy was a necessary by-product of centraliza-
tion, since a sovereignty of this kind over the world costs money, like any
other government. And it is well known that since the abolition or restriction
of that older fiscal policy, the system of finance has always been a difficult
point in the policy of the Curia.
191 (P* 37h.) T. von Bezold: Lehre von der Volkssuveramtat , pp. 351-338. P. 352:
“The transference of the Natural-Law construction of the State also to the
Church. 55 P. 353: “From the theses of Langenstein (1381) until the times of
the Councils of Pisa and Kostnitz, which for us are incorporated in Gerson,
the theory of the relation between the Pope and the Church passed through
several stages until it foisook completely the sphere of existing institutions and
of ecclesiastical tradition, and threw itself entirely into the arms of the
doctrine of Natural Law [von Bezold evidently means of the absolute N.L.,
which, however, he does not distinguish from the relative N.L. of classical
theology and ecclesiastical jurisprudence, which could quite well be combined
with the state of the Church and of Society as it was apart from all idealism]. 55
“The predominance of Divine and Natural Law finds in Gerson, as already
was the case with Marsilius, its expression in the exaltation of equity as the
supreme and unassailable legal court of appeal. Equity decides, without
descending to legal quibbling, according to its own standard, its own simple
feeling of right, whether and how this or that law is to be applied, changed, or
abolished. A General Council then ought to act in harmony with this supreme
law, and Gerson would entrust to such a Council indefinite powers. 55 This
“equity 55 ( Epikie ) is in reality only the right to assert the absolute Law of
Nature against any deformations of the relative N.L., and of the positive
law which is based upon it. Gerson argues thus(p. 354 f) : “If the ecclesiastical
authorities neglect their duty, this sacred duty is then laid on others even
down %o the peasants, yes, even to the most ignorant old woman in a parish. 55
“For the unity, the peace, and the renewal of the Church 55 , he exclaims, “not
only the secular princes, but also the peasants and the workmen, and every
believer down to the very least, must play their part, and even, if necessary, lay
down their lives in order to save the flock as a whole, after the example of the
ancients. 55 He cites Cicero and Valerius Maximus as examples of the ancient
civic virtue, which he desires to enkindle in the hearts of his Christian con-
temporaries for a spiritual republic. P. 356: “The Fathers of the Councils . . .
themselves considered the possibility of utilising the energies of the masses for
444 THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
the good of the Church.” Yon Bezold then speaks especially of Nicholas da
Cusa (p. 357) : “In the Law of Natuie which indwells human reason, every
binding determination of the positive law must originate. In this way an
isolated law is in closest connection with the inmost nature of man. Since,
however, by nature men are equally powerful and equally free, it is only the
collective body of humanity which possesses the constitutive authority to
create law.” “Every government exists only because all willingly agree to
submit to it.” He endeavours to interpret both the priesthood and the
monarchy along these lines. “All authority ... is contained potentially within
the people, power both Christian and secular.” “The Divine influence which is
ceitainly implied in all this, the radius formations , is certainly left in the back-
ground.” If we compare such statements with those of Thomism the difference
is startling. It is not the conception of Natural Law in itself which makes the
difference, but the way in which it is regarded and applied. The radical,
absolute Natural Law of the Primitive State stands out against the relative
Natural Law of the fallen State which justifies all existing institutions; and its
opposition to the latter is all the more intense because it is interpreted not in
the sense of natural inequality as in Aristotle and St. Thomas, but in the sense
of equality regarded from the Stoic-rationalistic point of view. And this con-
ception of Natural Law can no longer claim to be the counterpart of the
Church-conception, since through the ideal of a purely spiritual Church and
the right of lay criticism by the standard of the Bible, it has meanwhile cut
away the pillars which supported the conception of the Church as an institution.
By the development of the Papacy in the past few centuries this has become
so greatly the sum total and final conception of the uniform and united organ
of salvation, that the suppression of the Papacy in Episcopalianism and in the
renewed system of Territorial Churches destroyed the fundamental conceptions
of the Church altogether. These theoretical efforts to destroy the idea of the
Church have always been only secondary elements in the great struggle of
Church reform, whose political importance is made plain in the interesting
work of Haller. “Thus, if these events form merely one chapter in the Christian
history of dogma, they are also at the same time no less, indeed still more, a
phase in the age-long struggle between Church and State, or, to put it more
accurately, between the Catholic Church and the nationalist State” (Bailer,
L 479 )* Bailer, however, recognizes alongside of the motives of ecclesiastical
policy which proceeded from the English State Church system, also the
secondary elements of the destruction of the conception of the Church, since
he points to the “Pietism” of the demand for a poor Church ( p . 8g ), and to the
influence of the Defensor pads (340 /.), and above all to that of Occam (p. 342 f).
These secondary elements, however, went on working after the Councils — in
the renewed Papacy, in the Concordats, and in the Territorial- Church system-
had attained a result which satisfied the political demands of the day, but not
the religious criticism and the ideals of religious individualism.— For the
element of thought due to Occamism, and to the democratic conception of the
Law of Nature in the Conciliar Reform movement (see also K. Muller: K.G., II,
65* 67 f> an( I dC. Kohler . a, a. 07). For the whole situation which formed the
setting for the theories which have been described above on p. 4x3, see von
Bezold in Kultur der Gegenwart, II, V, 1 (a clear statement).
196 (P- 376*) Cf. Dietzel: Beitrage zur Geschichte des Sozialismtis (£./. GescL und
Lit. der Staatswissenschaften , II). Here, on Sir Thomas More. For the new type
of an individualistic cultured Christianity, see, above all, the important works
of Dilihey in the Arckiv.f Gesch . d. Philos V and VI. To what a large extent
MEDIAEVAL CATHOLICISM 445
the ideal of More is a new sociological type of religion is shown most clearly in
the inquiry conducted by Dietzel : a common share in a universal Theism,
evolved from Christianity and from the Stoics, combined with complete
religious toleration so far as the views of the individual are concerned, and at
the same time a distinct depreciation of worship and ritual.
187 (p. 381.) This comes out very plainly in the Evangel isch-soziale Kongress,
which is in itself so thoughtful and idealistic. Every time it meets, the effort
is made to formulate its Christian Social ideas in a theological-ethical form,
which will not be bound, like that of the sects, to the literal interpretation
of the Bible, but which will express the “spirit of the Gospel”, but which at
the same time will not assert that the essence of religion is contained in the
objective character of the Church as an institution, but which takes very
seriously the ethical demands of the Gospel in the radical sense. In this,
however, this movement has neither the sect community nor the Churches
behind it; its supporters are solely individuals whose spirit is “Christian” in
a free manner, but whose outlook is thoroughly in harmony with the modern
elements in life. There is, however, no organized community in existence
which embodies this “spirit” ; in reality this spirit is always first of all produced
by a church or a sect, and it is only when it has severed its connection with
both these forms of religious life that it becomes simply the “spirit” of Christi-
anity, which is a free principle, quite subjective in character, which, in the
absence of any sociological basis of its own, finds it very difficult to do anything
effective in social reform at all. At the same time this “spirit of Christianity”
always experiences afresh the difficulties of coming to terms with the natural
basis of human society. Its champions desire the spiritual interpretation of the
Gospel, and the universality of a Christianity of the people, without the
compromises of the Church and without concealing the purely Divine element
in the institutional character of the Church. Its champions desire the ethical
radicalism of a Society which is built upon the ideal of the Gospel, without
the narrowness and pettiness of the sect. It is, however, impossible to carry
the “spirit of the Gospel” into practice without some opportunistic restric-
tion to that which is practically possible, and without the resolve not to allow
the best to be the enemy of the good. Just as this situation is only intelligible
in the light of historical development, so also, on the other hand, it throws a
light upon the latter, where compulsory churches or revolutionary sects based
upon the voluntary principle have taken the task in hand, and also for their
part found it a very difficult and toilsome matter to make an adjustment to
the natural basis of social life.
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